the bug war continued
by blue c 84
Summary: The bug inside Earth's mantle wasn't the Queen the war goes on. The Roughnecks adopts a trooper and continues to fight bugs. don't worry, its just to fill the character of 'know it all' and 'sniper'. It's still about the war. promise. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

Roughnecks: STC Fan fiction

NOTE: Enter usual disclaimers here-- I don't own any of them, the book, the series, the movie/s. This fic is based on the series, not the book, not the movie and definitely not the second movie. Like I said, don't worry about the new character/s. It's still about the bug war, The new trooper just helps my story along. Also, I think it's good to mention that I have trouble keeping track of bugs-- especially when I wrote this 3/4 of the whole fic circa 2002. I found it a few weeks ago, re watched the whole series on youtube (props to you people) and decided to finish it with the help of my own notes from 2002. Oh. And I'm not Sony. I'll finish the last real chapter (chap 6) in a week. That being said, I hope the fic's alright. 

STC 1:Beijing

SICON HQ fell in Hawaii. Luckily, Sky Marshal Sanchez had the base evacuated mere hours before the onslaught and then ordered those at Intel to find the bug Queen ASAP. The psychics found her but they weren't happy. She was in the Earth's mantle.

In what was suppose to be Earth's final stand versus the Arachnids, SICON ordered MI troops to bring the war to the bugs. The POA-- Kill the Queen. The Roughnecks especially were one of the few squads given the most difficult if not impossible mission to take on the Queen themselves or die like troopers. We went. We saw. And amazingly with all the roughnecks accounted for, we conquered.

But not without very heavy losses. The MI was half the force it once was and SICON itself was having trouble reorganizing itself. It was okay, they said, the world was once again safe and we can rebuild. The rest of the now scattered and confused arachnids would be exterminated and the threat is history.

Or so we thought. Once again, Intel was wrong. All the pre-cogs woke up saying they had a message from the Queen just when SICON started printing dismissal letters. SICON dismissed the first few phone calls as post traumatic stress disorder until so many pre-cogs continued giving the same message. The message was clear. The bug inside the mantle was not the Queen. It was a decoy. This was just the first wave.

The Queen was still out there gathering her troops for her next offensive. She is waiting and planning. Earth was still facing extermination.

It was Day of the Homefront Campaign. After a week trying to reclaim and barricade what's left of Las Vegas, SICON finally gave the Roughnecks 72 hours of R&R not on Earth but in orbit aboard the Valley Forge. The logic was that it was more efficient to reach our next destination from above. All we needed to do was drop. That's SICON for you-- it's all about efficiency.

Less than 24 hours after R&R started, the higher ups reassigned Sergeant Zim to a much younger November squad to help their LT if only for a while. It was understandable. Squads like the November needed a person with more experience to break in new troopers. It was probably only due to General Redwing that this squad hasn't been dismantled. Zim will be missed but he promised to be back. But once again, the Roughnecks were a man short.

Things were normal for the rest of the R&R aboard the Valley Forge. Rico was in and out of squad quarters. The new LT position has left paperwork and meetings which he wasn't used to. Sometimes, he'd bring the paperwork back to squad quarters and a few of us would help him finish it off-- if help was even the right word. The troopers' normal havoc was enough for anything to take longer than it should, what more if they "helped".

The hours ticked away and amazingly, this R&R wasn't interrupted with another priority mission. However, there was word that the Roughnecks were getting not one but two troopers. "The more the merrier," Gossard had said while tinkering with another gadget. And almost on cue, the doors slid open and revealed the first of two troopers assigned. "Did you miss me?" Carl Jenkins had asked as he entered the room with his belongings. The room erupted in cheers and banter. "Great. The freak is back." Max Brutto had said.

Robert Higgins: _The Roughnecks _

Rico entered his squad's room to find it in its usual disarray and havoc. People were going about their normal business of teasing and prodding while Higgins recorded it all in his camera. Max Brutto lost his balance and knocked whatever Gossard had been prying with a screwdriver away.

"Brutto, what part of 'this thing is sensitive' did you not understand?" He said as he picked up his new toy and returned to his bunk.

Rico cleared his throat.

"All of it," was his reply.

Gossard sighed and rolled his eyes. "I should've known."

"Guess the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree." Doc said as he passed by to talk to the squad's only skinny T'Phai.

Rico cleared his throat again. This time everyone had noticed, quieted down, stared and went back to what they were doing. After all, it was just Rico. The door behind him slid open and Dizzy Flores came in and smiled as she plopped down her bunk beside Carl Jenkins.

"Well someone smells of starch." She teased.

"Maybe the pre-cogs fixed him?" Jenkins offered.

"Ha Ha." Rico answered. "R&R ends in 2 hours and I just received our orders." And with that, all activity came to a screeching halt. Once again, Rico was no longer 'our trooper buddy' Rico. He was Lt. Rico-- Infantry Officer.

T'Phai was the first to stand at attention. As if the gesture itself was sign, in an instant, everyone was in line and at attention.

Rico nodded and gave T'Phai a small grateful smile. "At ease." He ordered. He kicked a pillow out of the way and planted a tripod on the spot. A 3-D hologram automatically illuminated the space above.

"Beijing has been designated a hot spot in the last 24 hours. Fortunately, most of the population has already been evacuated to other provinces and the outskirts when they were informed that the desert nearby was overrun. The problem is, SICON doesn't know where the bugs are hiding. All aerial shots of the city shows a ghost town one shot then crawling the next."

"How about the infra reds and x-rays..." Gossard interrupted.

Rico shook his head. "No, nothing out of the ordinary and no bug activities. It's like the bugs learned how to become invisible. The Sky Marshal himself thinks the bugs have a new M.O. SICON has asked us to drop from the west of the city and head south. Delta has the East and North. We recon and figure this out. If it gets too hot, we have orders to evacuate immediately. Any questions?"

Rico looked around the room and stopped at Higgin's raised hand. "Higgins?"

"Ya, um.." Higgins readjusted his camera, "didn't they say that we're still expecting another trooper? Where is he?"

Rico sighed and scratched his head. "They said he was on transport here and he's already been briefed. We're supposed to meet him in the transport bay."

"So we're suppose to play hide and seek with bugs while we look out for the new guy?" Brutto exclaimed. "Nice." He said sarcastically.

"Isn't that what we did with you that day in Oahu?" Gossard shot back.

"OKAY!" Rico said a bit louder to discourage more havoc. "Any more RELEVANT questions?" He asked. The room stayed silent. "No? Good. Enjoy the rest of what time's left. Check your equipment and..." He looked around the messy room. "...clean up. We meet at transport bay at 1300."

Doc looked at the state of his bunk. "We could haze the new guy with house cleaning."

Lt. Ibanez looked at the trooper in front of her, read the paper given to her and looked at the trooper again. The trooper met her gaze. "Are you sure you were assigned to Lt. Rico, Private Anderson?" She asked as she read the paper once more.

"Ma'am yes ma'am." The trooper answered curtly.

Lt. Ibanez shrugged and turned around. "Alright trooper, follow me. I hope you're ready. Alpha's a bit crazier than the rest." The trooper silently followed the lieutenant. Ibanez looked back once in awhile and every time a bit more confused than the last.

They turned the corner and she punched in her code. The doors to the transport bay slid open. Immediately the noise of engines and the smell of fumes overcame their sense. Ibanez smiled in complete comfort as she lead the way to a bunch of troopers standing beside her plane. For some reason, she was always their ride.

"It's Lt. Ibanez." She heard Brutto say loud enough for the rest of squad to get in line. "Officer on deck." He said louder.

She saluted back. "At ease troopers." She smiled as she saw Rico come towards them behind her plane. "I have a package for you."

Brutto eyed the new trooper warily. "You've got to be kidding me." He said under his breath.

"What is it Brutto?" T'Phai asked.

Brutto shook his head. "Nothing skinny."

"Really?" He asked with an easy smile on. "Does this mean we have more R&R Carmen?"

Lt. Ibanez chuckled. "No, but you do have another hand." She handed him the transfer paper of the trooper behind her. "All yours. I'm going to rev up the engines. You've got 5 to get strapped."

Rico looked up from paper and called after Lt. Ibanez. "Hey! Is this serious?" But Lt. Ibanez had already gone out of earshot and into the cockpit. He gave the trooper a wary smile and turned towards his squad.

"Roughnecks!" Everyone straightened out at Rico's command. "This is Private Ashley Anderson. It says here she hits her mark 95 of the time but she comes with a trial period...? Now, pack it up." His troopers immediately filed inside the ship but there was definite confusion in the air.

"Can they do that? Trial period?" Higgins asked Gossard who was in front of him.

"Maybe she's a CHAS?" Gossard answered and shrugged.

"Much easier on the eyes though." Doc said.

Dizzy rolled her eyes. "Shut up and go! You're holding up the line with the marauder."

Rico turned to his new trooper. "I don't know what's happening with SICON but welcome to Roughnecks."

The ride to Beijing took 30 minutes but to Ashley Anderson, it felt like forever. She sat uncomfortably on her seat as the rest of the Roughnecks bantered about nothing in particular. She's almost got their names because of their helmets. She was just glad she sat in between T'Phai and Higgins. They were much quieter although Higgins would try to make a news clip one way or another.

She looked up to the other side where her new LT sat beside Dizzy Flores and Carl Jenkins. They were talking to each other. She didn't have to be special ops to know that it was about her with one of them stealing glances at her once in awhile.

Then there's the trooper beside T'Phai, Max Brutto, who was eying her like a bug would eye a human. She was getting tired of that boy staring at her. She sighed and looked up. "How much longer is this going to take?" She whispered to herself.

And as if on cue, Lt. Ibanez's voice filtered through the speakers. "Alright Roughnecks, this is your stop. Welcome to China."

As the plane descended, the troopers readied to jump of the ship. The rear door of the plane slowly swung open.

For being known as one of the most populous cities in the planet, Beijing was quiet. The summer sunshine filtered through the empty streets and broken down buildings peacefully. There was a slight breeze going through the city picking up the dust and swirling it about a little. The street before them looked like the people just dropped what they were doing and disappeared. The troopers stood there in awe.

"Good setting for an Eastern western." Doc commented finally breaking the silence

"Not so Twilight Zone." Gossard smirked inside his marauder

Higgins clicked on his camera, "We just dropped in Beijing and the city seems deserted. However, this could be deceiving.." He continued on his news report as he sweeping shots of the view in front of him.

"Um.. Rico" Dizzy elbowed her friend lightly knocking Rico out of his reverie. "Wake up and smell the tea brewing." She hinted.

Rico nodded. "Right. Thanks Diz." He looked over to his left. "Carl, anything?"

Carl Jenkins winced a little as he did a mental scan of the place. "It's crawling," he said, "I just can't seem to pin point where. They're not above ground just yet."

"Wow. Lotsa help there, Jenkins." Brutto chided as he looked around.

"Ok, Here's what we're going to do." Rico said as he looked at his team. "We head straight to the next major intersection. There, we split into two teams. T'Phai, Goss, Brutto and Andy, you turn right immediately on the Third Ring Road and head south. Dizzy, Carl, Doc and I will head straight and turn on the Second Ring Road. We meet at Tiananmen Square. Weapons at the ready at all times and radio in if you find something." He looked at the shell of the city around him. "Anything."

"Sir, Yes sir!" The said in unison.

"What's the matter? Afraid to live forever?" Rico asked.

T'Phai watched the younger Brutto as they separated and turned a corner. He has been particularly less aggressive than usual that it has become suspicious. It was obviously because of the new trooper Andy. T'Phai eyed Brutto as they fanned out closer to anywhere and anything that could provide cover in case bugs come out. He noticed the human's preoccupation with the girl and it was seemed like the girl obviously knew she was being watched.

By the third small intersection, the skinny had enough of this. It was dangerous to be on a mission with this kind of mistrust. He thanked the gods no arachnids have come yet. But the quiet was just as bad.

"Brutto, is something the matter?" T'Phai asked cautiously.

"Besides from this feels like an ambush and I'm with a skinny? No everything is peachy." He answered sarcastically in usual Brutto fashion.

The new trooper smirked. "Don't worry. He just doesn't like me." She answered before moving to peer in another empty building.

"It's alright." Gossard answered. "No one likes him." He teased as he maneuvered the heavy marauder

T'Phai took a deep breath as he carefully worded his next words. "Is there a valid reason why?" There was a momentary silence.

"She was a year ahead of me in my high school. Hanged out with the weird crowd." Brutto finally said. "She burned my buddy in chemistry class and sent him to the hospital with 2nd degree burns. We lost our undefeated streak and almost lost the title in the sports league. That nerd has an attitude problem."

"Whoah," Gossard exclaimed. "Remind me never to piss you off."

Andy laughed out loud. "Right." She said with hint of sarcasm. "Look, I was in that school for a year..."

"Thank God it was only a year." Brutto cut her off.

"... and it wasn't my fault his friend was being a total jerk blowing powdered chemicals at my lab partner. So, I adjusted the gas output of the burner and waited until he came near enough then lit it up. " Andy explained further. "It was labeled an accident."

"Right. An accident coming from the science wiz. How believable is that?" Brutoo rolled his eyes in contempt.

She squinted her watching black dots from the horizon. "We can reminisce later." She pointed at the movement in front.

A bright blue streak streamed down and hit the pavement slightly before them. And from within the building to their left, they heard screams.

"Those are bugs alright." Gossard said at he let loose a salvo a missiles from the maurader towards the advancing horde.

T'Phai turned on his communications. "Red Leader, come in, Red leader."

"We hear you T'Phai, over." Rico's voice came through the comm.

"We have bugs..." He looked over at Brutto charging in the building where the screams are from. He came out with two reluctant scared little ones. "...and two human children."

"I wish there were bugs." Dizzy sighed as she checked another building. "This quiet is killing me."

Doc smirked. "You never stepped in a library before have you."

Rico stopped in his tracks and looked around at the empty city. "No, Dizzy is right. Normally there'd be swarms of bugs by now."

"I'm not complaining if we don't find anything for once." Doc said. Suddenly a faint sound of machine guns and bombs echoed through desolate streets. "And there goes wishful thinking."

"We hear you T'Phai, over." Rico said as the skinny's voice started reporting. "You found kids?!" He exclaimed in shock.

"Um guys," Higgins said feebly.

Dizzy went to Rico with a concerned look on her face. "They found what?"

"Children. Two of them." Carl answered matter of factly then opened his eyes and charged his morita. "We have problems of our own."

"Guys!" Higgins tried again, louder this time as he took a few steps backwards.

Doc let loose a few missiles. "You had to say something Dizzy."

Rico watched as the swarm of Hoppers grew bigger by their left side. "Great. Just great." He muttered as he readied his own morita. "Make your way to Tiananmen with the children asap. We'll meet you there." He commanded to T'Phai before he shot a few rounds into the warriors and backpedaled heading south.

"There's too many of them! We can't stay here!" Brutto yelled as he shot a few more Hoppers out of the air. The four were hardly holding the line. T'Phai dodged as a bug came too close for comfort and immediately shot it down.

"I'm taking the Plasma! Cover me!" Gossard shouted to no one in particular. "Go ahead." He heard T'Phai answer back as he aimed at the bright blue bug stationed at the back of the pack. The plasma bug exploded taking a large part of its kin with it. However it was not enough to force the bugs to retreat.

From the corner of her eyes she saw something fly pass them. "The kids!" She muttered as she broke their line and slid on her back underneath the flying bug taking it out in the process. She skid all the way to the feet of the little kids and winked at them before she went back to helping her defend the line.

T'Phai knew they had to buy more time to think. Only a few seconds would be enough to reload and regroup. He switched his weapon's settings to plasma. "We should create a firewall." He ordered. One by one they shot and created a wall of blue flame. Brutto took the time wipe the sweat off his forehead. T'Phai looked at the children warily thankful they weren't his own but also thinking about what would he do if they were. He went to the children and coaxed them out to join them. It was safer that way.

"We should retreat half a block." Gossard suggested as he looked around and caught his breath.

Brutto looked at him incredulously. "WHAT? What are you talking about? How is that suppose to help?"

Andy looked behind half a block to see what he was referring to. Then she saw them-- the bridges and the pedestrian overpasses. "We can safely blow up the pillars of those bridges. It'll take a whole bunch of them when those fall."

Gossard grinned and nodded. Andy reloaded her own weapon and fired on the bugs that were starting to pass through the firewall.

"Then we should go." T'Phai said. He carried one of the children and handed the other one to Brutto. "Take him and we will go ahead. They will cover our 'retreat'" He explained before the boy could protest.

"Don't worry Brutto. You'll make a great babysitter." Gossard said as he set his marauder to go backwards.

A large explosion and cloud of dust erupted from a distance. Higgins watched as the cloud grew and dissipated into the air. "Are they trying to blow the city apart?" He asked. His concentration quickly went back to the matter at hand.

"They're fine as far as I can tell, Rico. Including the civilians." Carl said as he felt Rico glance at him for some answers.

"That sounds like fun." Dizzy said as she threw some grenades into the hordes coming at them. "Because I do believe gentlemen, that we are being flanked."

Doc aimed for the buildings surrounding the bugs and made them crumble over the bugs. Unfortunely, he can only shoot some buildings down. Not all of the buildings were made of cement after all.

Rico smiled. "Good, because that's exactly what we're going to do."

"What?!" Higgins exclaimed.

Dizzy grinned as she shot a few more warriors down. "I like how this is sounding."

"Doc, there's a subway station sign right there. Let's pull rug from underneath them." Rico pointed out to the sign with a train picture.

Doc shook his head unsurely. "But Rico, our floor might collapse along with it."

"Then put on your running shoes." Dizzy announced.

"What?!" Higgins exclaimed for a whole different reason.

As the dust settled from the explosions, the troopers from both team stared in awe at the sight of broken concrete and dead bugs. However, there was something very odd. Besides from the destruction they had caused, the streets were again as quiet as they had found it. There were no signs of the bugs retreating. There were no signs of bug activity.

Dizzy Flores lowered her weapon as she surveyed the area. In the year that she had been a trooper, she would usually see bugs retreating after a large amount of them have been beaten. There hasn't been an instance that they would just disappear like they never existed. She saw Higgins with his camera once again filming the wreckage with an equally confused look on his face.

"Did they just learn a new magic trick?" She asked as she watched Carl in deep concentration.

Carl opened his eyes and growled in frustration. "There's nothing-- AGAIN. It's like the bugs learned how to disappear."

"But still," Doc looked at Rico, "bugs don't do magic."

Rico bit his lower lip equally frustrated at the situation. It was obvious he did not like these odds. The area they were in was once again a ghost town just as the photos Intel had given had shown-- there was nothing, then something, then nothing in an instant. The sun had also started to set over the city.

"Hig, radio the others to get to the square now. We're meeting up now." He ordered as he looked around. "Let's move."

Tiananmen square had always been slightly politically charged. It used to be a large clean plaza with government, state function buildings and museums surrounding it on three sides. The body of the revered leader of China's communist party used to be frozen inside one of the grand buildings. But now, across the entrance of crumbling entrance of the Forbidden city was a broken version of its previous grandeur. Like most of the important landmarks in the world, it was barely recognizable.

Rico's Roughnecks camped out underneath the ground in the abandoned subway station of Tiananmen. Communications with Delta squad could not be established and the Valley Forge had ordered the recon to continue even with two young civilians in tow.

Carl Jenkin's frustration went to an all time high as he sat slumped against the cool tiles of the subway walls. The squad knew the situation was dire if their resident pre-cog, who they believe to be the best psychic in all of SICON, could not get any sign of the arachnids even when they knew the bugs were around somewhere. What's worse is that now, they would have no advance warning if they were attacked.

They were now taking turns in keeping watch outside the station while the empty marauders acted like barricades if an attack came from within. Dizzy Flores, Max Brutto and T'Phai were asleep in front of a make shift fire. Doc was thoroughly checking the second child while the first one took his interest on one of the marauders and was accompanied by Gossard. Higgins, as usual, was filming the view outside.

Andy came back down the steps. "There's absolutely nothing out there unless you want rubble." She reported. Rico motioned her to take a seat and she did. She kept herself occupied by checking her ammunitions. Then she sighed as she noticed both Carl Jenkins and her new temporary LT stealing glances her way.

"Sir, permission to speak freely sir?" She asked, not that she needed to ask in this crew anyway. Apparently, they weren't big on protocol.

Rico received a nudge from Carl. "Oh. Right. Permission granted. What's on your mind?"

"I think the question will be what's on yours, sir." She answered wryly.

Rico looked at Carl hesitantly. Carl shrugged as if to say 'go ahead, it's your call.' "Look Andy, I've never seen an ace shooter being sent to a squad on probation before. It's usually either you're assigned or not."

"Actually I've been wondering about that too." Gossard said. He turned the corner carrying the little kid. "What's with the trial period?" He let the kid down when he reached his friends. The child sat down and looked at each of them, quietly waiting for his friend to be done with Doc.

Andy shrugged and took a deep breath. "I didn't get along with most of Sierra squad." She paused and smiled. "They didn't like me much either."

Carl's expression visibly changed as if light suddenly dawned on him. "That doesn't mean you get reassigned."

She nodded and smiled. "It does when the L.T. bags you with insubordination. That's kind of the way it works."

"But" Doc joined in the conversation, "Insubordination gets you kicked out of the military not reassignment."

"So what happened?" Carl reasoned asked curiously.

"Well, since there wasn't any real evidence and the witness accounts weren't unanimous on the charge, they couldn't really be sure if I were being insubordinate." She said as the little kid sat on her lap and fiddled with her helmet. "So they couldn't really boot me out but they could make me squad hop."

"That is the weirdest thing." Gossard commented. "What will they think of next."

Carl Jenkins nodded in agreement then an idea hit him. "Psychic blocking." He looked at Rico. "There have been instances when humans can block out psychics-- maybe that's something the bugs learned. It keeps them hidden." He said.

"But that wouldn't explain how they could just disappear all of a sudden." Gossard pointed out. "Or how Intel couldn't get an aerial view of the usual mounds and tunnels." Doc added.

"Or how quiet it is outside." Higgins said as he came down the stairs. "You can hear a pin drop out there."

Andy looked at her companions inquisitively. "Did you just say mounds and tunnels and Intel couldn't find them?"

Higgins returned her look. "That's what we're looking for. Weren't you briefed?"

Andy shrugged and gave him a weak smile. "They said to join Alpha team in their recon in Beijing. That's about it. Let me try to talk to these kids one moment." She stood up and headed over where the kids moved to play.

Rico gave her a surprised look. "You can speak Chinese?"

"Just a little. I lived in this city once for a few months." She answered without looking back. "I moved around a lot." A conversation in a different language meshed with a few english words echoed through the space. The kids were excited that someone could understand them finally. And Andy gave them small smiles as she tried to get them to speak slower so she could understand.

After a few minutes she came back to the group with weak smile. "Well?" Carl asked.

Rico shrugged. "What do you have?"

---

Day two of the China campaign and the Roughnecks had a new lead. Apparently, Beijing was perfect for a stealth bug invasion. Behind the Forbidden City, there was a garden with a man- made hill. In the last revolution, the communists piled the imperial family's belongings in a mound and cemented it eventually becoming the garden it is today-- or was. At the same note, Beijing also has its own network of underground escape tunnels. They were originally intended to be used as a bomb shelter for the whole population during the past world wars and eventually was used for evacuation purposes. People could live in those tunnels if they needed to. In its day, it was equip with a few days worth of food, weapons and medicine centers. It was also networked to have exits/ entrances to every major building and intersection in the city so it would be easy for the massive population to get in and out. They were also made so that tanks and army vehicles could roll through with ease. These tunnels were closed in the last century because it was starting to come apart. It was no longer safe.

The bugs didn't have to make their own mound or tunnels here. It had already existed. SICON would have never found the bugs because they assumed that they were Beijing's status quo. But the Roughnecks had to make sure that this hunch was correct and SICON changed the POA to search and destroy but to damage as little national landmarks as possible-- and there in lies the problem.

_ Robert Higgins: The Roughnecks _

The squad had taken the main compound of the Forbidden City easily. Once again, there were no resistance which worried them more than ever since they were so accustomed to having the worst. The sweltering summer heat didn't help Max Brutto's mood although it seemed to help T'Phai's as they watched the quiet garden for bug activity not far from the North end of the City's wall. It was quiet so far. In fact, the greenery looked undisturbed. Brutto fidgeted.

"T'Phai and Brutto are you ready?" Rico's voice came through the communications line.

"Yes, we are in position." T'Phai answered as he raised his morita and took aim.

"Have I told you how I do not like this plan? Drawing bugs out is like asking for it." Brutto complained.

Rico's tone couldn't be more unapologetic. "Just blow it up Brutto. We're ready here."

Brutto raised his missile launcher and aimed for the garden. "Fine." he grunted.

T'Phai glanced as his partner's scowling face and decided against reprimanding him once again. "I will count you down." He said. " Launch at 5... 4... 3..."

Just then, the garden sprung in to life. Patches of grass moved and bugs came pouring out. A Streams of blue plasma streamed through the air above them.

"..2"

Behind them, there was a large explosion and squeals of bugs started to fill the air.

"..1"

Brutto fired the missiles into its intended target-- the man made hill of the garden. But it wasn't enough to topple the new bug stronghold down. He placed the empty launcher down as a massive wave of bugs seemed to head towards them.

"Let us go." T'Phai said as he fired a few rounds of plasma missiles to the bugs below trying to come up.

Andy watched a series of explosions from the Drum Tower and sighed. She had liked this city. The last time she was on this tower, she had a picture taken with the language group she was with not stalking bugs and waiting until their time came to infiltrate with nobody else but a psychic. Granted, this was Carl Jenkins she was with. Even a relative newbie like her has heard about the amazing talents this psychic had. And the odds she was dealt wasn't bad. She'd rather be in this squad than any other when faced with these 1 vs a million odds. Apparently, Alpha had managed to scrape themselves out of more encounters like this than any other. A group of Hoppers and Fireflies started coming to their direction prompting her to hide. No doubt the air would soon be filled with them seeing if there's anything moving to kill. The plan of making the garden blow would fail if they were noticed.

"Did you get to see where they are?" Carl Jenkins whispered. A swarm of bugs just passed by overhead.

Andy looked up for a few seconds thinking at a precise description as gun battles filled the air. "They just blew up the central court in the Forbidden City and I think the second one was the Tiananmen subway. They should be calling in soon." She answered as took another step down the steep stair case of the tower.

Carl looked at her curiously as she winced with every explosion she heard. "You don't like what's happening to this city do you?"

She gave him a weak smile when they reached the bottom. "Like I said, I lived here for a few months. I like this city." She took a peek outside the metal door. "This is as good as it's going to get. It's not so creepy crawly yet. We can still get to those narrow alleys without much problem"

Carl shook his head. "Negative, we're waiting for Rico's signal."

"I'm just saying it's getting crowded out there." Andy motioned for him to take a look. "I don't care how invisible we are to the brain bug that's probably in that hill, we're not going to be invisible when we make a run for it. Unless, of course, you make us invisible. But that's too pushy."

The marauders let loose another salvo of missiles in the middle of arachnid horde. The road underneath them gave way. That was the third major point they needed to blow. Dizzy Flores went on point as the children running in between the squad directed the easiest and most narrow roads to take with a few english words they learned overnight.

Dizzy grinned as she dodged the acid the blister bug's spit. She let loose a salvo of bullets and jumped over the dead bugs. She looked up at T'phai and Brutto on the roof top shooting down fireflies before jumping down to the street ahead of her. "Nice of you to drop in." She greeted.

"Tell me that when this chase is over." Brutto said as he used another plasma shot to firewall create a firewall before the warrior bugs heading towards them could reach the intersection.

"Great! You're here." Rico said as he noticed T'Phai saving one of the children from stepping on acid. "Goss, tell Carl..." He didn't have time to finish his sentence. The ground from underneath them started to shake and break apart. They knew this feeling before. They only had seconds. At the corner of his eyes, he saw a stone church still standing a few intersections on his left side.

"Retreat to that church! NOW!"

Doc gunned down another swarm of fireflies from the second floor window. It looked like bug central wherever he looked. Blister bugs had started spitting acid on the stone walls. The integrity of the building might be compromised if this didn't end soon. Not to mention, there was a possibility of the bugs just burrowing underneath. "Rico! We can't stay here long." He yelled.

"Higgins, drop the camera and grab your gun!" Brutto ordered. "The bugs aren't here for a photo op."

"T'Phai! Help me out here." Gossard shouted out to the skinny on the other side of the room.

Rico stared at situation in front of him. It was slightly easier when Zim was around because he was bossy enough to snap him out of his normal slump. But now the situations were different. SICON's parameters made it impossible t scrape out of this. He saw Dizzy come to his side and looked him in the eye.

"Johnny," she started her pep talk. "Just do what you want."

Rico shook his head. "I can't, Diz, SICON said monuments..."

"It's either SICON or the squad Rico. Carl and Andy are still out there." Dizzy said with a nod and went back to the window beside Doc.

Rico watched as Dizzy and Higgins took cover behind the wall as flames came from the window. The two kids sat beside each other on one of the broken pews quietly shivering with fear. "Right." He said to himself. "Valley Forge, this is Alpha team over."

There was a slight crackle in the com link then the obvious voice of the Valley Forge came loud and clear. "This is Valley Forge, what's your status Alpha team?"

"The bug mound is at sector. We are under massive fire and need evac immediately." Rico said as he saw a plasma explode a shake the church.

"Copy that Alpha, Lt. Ibanez will evac at your position in 10."

"There is no way in or out of this church Lt. Rico" T'Phai said in his usual calm demeanor.

"This building won't survive a bomb dropped from anywhere either." Gossard added. "Ibanez won't be able to land."

Rico shook his head. "We'll worry about that later. We need to make sure where Carl and Andy are."

Carl watched as the number of arachnids outside their door reached new heights. He looked at the new trooper sitting with her head on her hands waiting for Rico's signal. Carl himself was starting to get worried. The crowd outside would make it hard to get through with the original plan of getting near enough for the launchers to make maximum damage.

"Blue team, this is red team over!" Dizzy Flores' rushed voice filled the communications in their helmet. Immediately, the bugs outside squealed and headed their direction. They've picked up the radio signal. Carl automatically closed and barricaded the gate. Andy stood up and readied her morita aiming for the top of the narrow stairway just in case.

"This is Blue team." Carl asked as he heard random shouts and more gun fire.

"New plan. We need you to launch the missiles from the tower when you see fleet. Mark that hill and they'll blow it up." Dizzy answered almost enthusiastically.

Andy shot Carl a confused look. "Where are you?" Carl asked.

There were more sounds of gun fire before Dizzy could reply. "We're in a church surrounded by bugs not far from that big subway station."

"We're too near ground zero," Carl realized, "I guess, we're going down like troopers." Carl looked at Andy and saw her biting her lower lip.

"Yep. Seems like it." Dizzy answered.

"Sorry to interrupt." Andy said quickly, "you might not be going anywhere just yet, Flores. If that church is the stone Catholic one with a pretty big courtyard in front, there's a trap door underneath the marble altar leading to a bomb shelter. It's sort of a long story." She explained. She climbed the stairs leading to the drum room.

"But you're still..."

"Don't worry about it. These buildings have been here forever. I doubt that they'll just crumble and fall." She answered the worried voice of Dizzy. "Jenkins just turned on his locater beacon. Just remember to pick us up."

"Blue team out." Carl ended comm link and looked at Andy with disbelief. "Were you bluffing?"

Andy grinned. "About them? No. There is a bomb shelter there." She re- checked her morita and took a deep breath as she faced the door to the balcony. "About the tower? I sure hope not."

--

Intel suffered a hard blow after Beijing. SICON reprimanded them for relying far too much on what immediate information they can get. There was also new problem that the psychics may no longer be as accurate as before because the bugs had learned to block them out-- to what extent is still unknown.

We learned later that the Delta squad hadn't faired very well. They got caught within the walls of a temple unable to break loose because a city tunnel's exit/ entrance was very near where they needed to exit. Luckily they were all able to evacuate earlier than expected but not without injuries. The squad will not be seeing action for awhile.

Rico's Roughnecks cheated death once again. Carl Jenkins and Ashley Anderson were able to mark the hill that bugs used as a stronghold and take cover within the stairwell before Fleet dropped the bomb. Rico ordered Gossard to blow the church up before fleet arrived to take out as much bugs as possible. The church's bomb shelter held and although the whole drum room, roof, and ceiling were obliterated due to the force of the aftershocks, the body of the tower itself held-- barely.

But as we evacuated the sight and looked down at the broken city below, we realized what this war has become. There was the barely recognizable city of Beijing. The center of history and artifacts of one of the world's most populous, influential, and oldest civilization was gone. The millions of people, including the two who had come with us, will never be able to return to the home they had left.

In the end, the survival of a people's culture will no longer be rooted in old buildings, pictures, museums or cities. Instead, the next generation would have to be reminded by the survivors who carry their memory with them. People are, once again, what's important.

_ Robert Higgins:: The Roughnecks _


	2. Chapter 2

STC 2: The Amazon Rainforest

Day for the Fight for planet Earth. Numerous tribes and villages living near the Amazon Rainforest had expressed their concerns about glimpses of giant spiders and webs tangled through the forest canopy. SICON knew this could only mean one thing. The Jungle spiders from Tesca Nemerosa were on Earth. And where there were bugs that collect species for DNA extraction, there were nests to pass the new DNA to and create a new hybrid specie. The arachnids couldn't have gone to a better place. The Amazon is teeming with life.

Every MI squad that dealt with these bugs in the Tesca Campaign now scoured The Amazon trying to create as little eco- damage as possible. The mission was to search out the nests and destroy them.

FedNet files

"It's raining. Again." Max Brutto complained as he sat down on a large tree root near the river they were using as a trail. It was late afternoon and treking the rainforest had proved extremely difficult even without a full power suit. By mid day, the air had become saturated with water that it became hard to breath. The constant mist made everything muggy and the damp, sometimes muddy, soil made the terrain harder to hike. The rainforest was being what it was-- a rainforest-- but for troopers who have been securing sector after sector in the heat, the place started to take its toll.

Andy smirked. She placed down her morita and stretched her aching muscles a little. "There's a reason it isn't called the Amazon dry forest, Brutto."

"I'm just tired." Doc joined Brutto on the root. "I'm so glad we left the marauders."

"Ditto." Gossard said. He dropped to the ground to take a breather. He spritz himself with insect repellent just to realize that there's barely any left. "And there goes our last insect repellant spray."

Rico, T'Phai and Sgt. Zim came to view and there was collective groaning from the boys who were already getting comfortable sitting down because orders would surely follow. Carl followed not long after and Dizzy was helping Higgins up the last muddy climb making sure he doesnt fall into the river rapids. "Guys, we still have to make camp." Rico reminded his tired companions.

An audible moan went through the group. Sgt. Zim's expression took a stricter demeanor. "What's wrong Apes? I thought I had troopers in squad not a bunch of weak babies." He said in his usual commanding tone albeit not as forceful as it used to be. "Gossard, Flores, Brutto and T'Phai get some wood. Jenkins, Anderson, Doc and Higgins, the tents and gear. Rico and I have the perimeter."

"Sir yes sir!" They replied however half- heartedly.

After the tents have been made and the rain had stopped, moods improved dramatically. The Amazon cooled down considerably at night often with gentle breezes. But there was a different problem when the sun went down-- mosquitoes, ants, and a myrads of little insects. The fire's smoke usually helped keep them at bay but they were never really gone. And with no more insect repellant, there was a lot of slapping in the camp.

Patrol was divided into two shifts that night which left everyone with at least 4 to 5 hours of sleep before they had to move into another sector the next day. Brutto, T'Phai, Jenkins and Zim thought they heard odd noises from the tree tops at first watch. They aimed their weapons up to the canopy ready to shoot down the Tesca spider, just to see a few very scared monkeys running away.

Rico, Dizzy, Doc, Andy, Gossard and Higgins took the second shift. Doc and Gossard just returned from checking the perimeter. At the moment, the whole Amazon sounded asleep although day was almost breaking and they were left watching either the fire or Andy doing the oddest thing-- looking at plants.

"Why do I feel like we should have a guitar and start singing Kumbayah." Gossard said while staring into the fire.

Higgins chuckled sleepily, then smacked his arm when he felt like an insect was biting him. "I think I got another one."

Dizzy turned to her friend dryly. "Bobby, don't start with the insects when i'm trying to fight the urge not to try to kill them with the gun."

Andy sat down happily with 2 halves of an empty coconut shell filled with small red berries and different leaves. She dumped them contents on a bigger leaf, unsheathed her utility knife and started collecting the seeds of berries before eating them. Unlike the rest of them, she didn't seem to have a problem with insects.

Finally Rico curiosity won over him. "Andy, why aren't you being eaten alive like the rest of us?"

"It's wild peppermint. Grind it up and rub it on exposed skin. Insects hate the smell but you'll smell pretty." She said handing a few leaves to Higgins. "Guarana anyone? Three times the caffeine compared to coffee and no side effects." She tried tempting them with a bowl of seeds. She ate a few more seeds before she noticed that her companions were looking oddly at her. "My grandparent's house had no T.V. and they had a lot of books on alternative medicine. I was bored."

A loud rustle of leaves stopped the rest of the conversation. Each of the troopers slowly reached for their weapon and stood up as more rustling was heard. The sun had started to rise making the tree canopy more visible with each minute.

"Teams of three." Rico whispered. "Dizzy, Doc and I will secure camp while you guys search the perimeter. No need to wake them up just yet. It might just be some harmless animal." The troopers nodded before going their separate ways.

Andy, Higgins and Gossard slowly made their way away from camp and into the flora of the misty rainforest. They quietly searched the horizon and the treetops for movement. After a few minutes, they decided to head back to camp. There were no signs of bugs let alone the Tesca spider—just the usual rainforest noise. The place looked web free.

Higgins replaced his weapon for the camera. He stopped to film the Amazon at daybreak. "You know, if we had more insect repellent and we weren't here to kill bugs, this would actually be really beautiful." He said panning his shot. He paused his recording and checked his camera. "Hm. Hey guys, do you think the humidity could fry my camera? My audiometer was going crazy."

"We can fix that later." Gossard sighed. He turned around and stored his weapon. "Higgins! Above." He shouted, running towards the reporter.

Higgins automatically looked up and saw a giant Tesca spider mere inches above him. He stood frozen as Gossard tackled him off to one side. Higgins flew a few meters away from the spider. Andy turned just in time to see Gossard being cocooned by the giant spider while many smaller ones started to occupy the canopy. She set her morita to fire plasma and took aim at the giant spider getting away with a trooper. "Hig, cover me." She said calmly.

Higgins dodged the smaller spider's webs making his way to her. "Don't! You might hit Gossard!" He yelled. He let loose a salvo of bullets at the spiders making their way to her.

"I won't miss." She replied under her breath more like a mantra than a reassuring statement. She suddenly readjusted before pulling the trigger.

Higgins turned around wide eyed in alarm. He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the shot hit one side of the spider's head and the blast didn't spread to the cocoon. The dead spider fell with the cocoon still stuck on its underbelly. "You're going to give me a heart attack." He said as they both started to make their way to Gossard.

"Wait. Hear that? That's gun fire." Dizzy exclaimed. She turned in time to see birds suddenly fly above the tree line not far from where they were. "They're in trouble."

Rico looked at Doc. "Wake the rest of them up."

"I guess nap time is over." Doc said as he ran over to where the rest of the squad was sleeping.

Dizzy's eyes grew wide as she watched smaller Tesca spiders appear in the tree line near the medic. "Doc, watch out!" She started firing at the spiders before they could hit him with their webs. The three were forced backwards towards the small ravine with the sheer number of the spiders. Gunfire from camp reassured them that at least their sleeping companions weren't sleeping anymore.

"Lt. Rico, do you copy?" Zim's voice could be heard over the comm. links. "We have bugs."

Rico frowned as he was pushed further. He looked down to the raging waters below. "Yeah, they've backed us up near the river. Gossard, Higgins and Anderson are MIA in the forest. Try to get yourselves here." He ordered. He instinctively dodged the spider that jumped his way. Unfortunately, he didn't anticipate losing his balance and he fell off the cliff.

"Rico!" He heard Dizzy call out as she grabbed his right hand saving him momentarily from the rapids below. "Doc, a little help? I'm slipping"

"Kind of busy keeping the bugs away, Diz." Doc answered back as he tried to hold the line by himself.

"Diz, you need to let go." Rico shouted at the struggling trooper.

Dizzy Flores looked at him defiantly as she felt herself slide forward due to his weight. "Like that's going to happen." She shot back still trying to hold on.

"It's not a request Flores…" Rico wasn't able to finish the sentence as they both fell into the rapids.

When Sgt. Zim, Jenkins, Brutto and T'phai reached Rico's position, they caught a glimpse of Doc being cocooned by a giant spider and two screaming troopers fall into the river while they were battling the smaller spiders away. The giant spider quickly retreated to the trees and jumped up to the branches above.

"Diz! Rico!" Carl exclaimed helplessly. He gritted his teeth angrily and switched to a flame thrower.

Sgt. Zim was quick to open his comm. link. "Gossard, Higgins, Anderson. If you can hear me a spider took Doc. It may be heading your way." He said before concentrating on dodging the spiders. He didn't wait for a reply as he took hold of his own flame thrower.

Gossard tried to shake off the drowsiness from being in the cocoon even for that short a period of time. The sound of gunfire helped emphasize the urgency. He sat up from the opened cocoon and automatically reached for his morita.

"Welcome back sunshine." Higgins said taking a step back.

Gossard started to take aim and fire. "What happened?" He asked when he saw the headless giant spider to one side. Suddenly Zim's booming voice could be heard over the communications startling the three troopers before anyone could answer him. "Bugs got Doc." He informed the other two.

"There it is. 2 o'clock. Almost out of range." Andy announced taking a few steps forward and changing settings.

"Not again." Higgins sighed. He side stepped over Gossard's old cocoon effectively avoiding a dead spider landing where he used to stand. He saw Andy shake her head, change settings again. "Don't shoot if you're not sure!" He shouted out.

Andy took a deep breath. "Tracker's all I can do with this crap angle." She muttered and fired. The giant spider jumped away out of sight and as if their mission were done, the little spiders slowly retreated.

Soon, the area was still. The three relaxed their stance a little. "Sgt. Zim, we're heading back to camp." Higgins said quickly establishing comm. with Sgt. Zim.

"Copy that Higgins." Sgt. Zim replied with his usual precise tone.

Gossard caught the tracking device Andy tossed at him before going behind a tree. He watched as the red dot moved quickly proving that she tagged Doc before the spider was out of range. "Yes!" He grinned.

Then the two boys heard a lot of coughing and a little spitting from behind the tree. She came back into view a few seconds later visibly paler and picked a leaf from a plant a few steps beside her. She wiped it off a little before eating it.

"Should you be eating that after the spiders…" Higgins asked. He watched as she paled a little bit more while spitting the leaf out before wiping her lips with the back of her hand.

"Andy? Are you ok?" Gossard asked concerned because she was so pale. He took a few steps towards her just in case something happened but she waved him off.

"I hate normal Earth spiders enough. Now there are big, fast, giant ones that hop through trees carrying prey and smaller giant ones that group together and try to get you too? That's ridiculous! This sucks! Can't they find anything less creepy to mutate to than giant spiders?" She ranted weakly making the boys remember that she wasn't in Tesca with them when they first encountered the spiders. "Wait. Doc." She met the gaze of both boys as if she had just awakened. "So, did I get it?"

Sgt. Zim knew he was going to have a bad day when he woke up with bugs invading camp. He didn't know how bad it would be until he lost his commanding officer and a top trooper to the river rapids and the medic to the bugs. There has been no communications from the Lt for almost an hour. He now watched as two relative greenies, a skinny, a psychic, a reporter and a mechanic try to salvage what's left of the camp that's been ravaged by spiders. He was also sure that it was getting much hotter than it was at the same time the day before.

The troopers one by one gathered in front of him without much enthusiasm. It was going to be a long day. "Status report." He demanded.

"Rations have been compromised. The spiders walked all over it or we shot it-- puncutred the seals and let mud in. We can't eat or drink them." Carl said. "T'Phai?"

"The tents are unusable. They have been shredded." T'Phai looked at the younger girl beside him.

Andy took a deep breath. "We have no meds. The only ones usable left are the ones with Doc. All the syringes and vials are broken. All the bandages are muddy. We can probably use the cloth ones but they won't be sterile even if we do clean them. We can absolutely forget about the adhesives."

"We don't even have a first aid kit." Higgins added.

Brutto crossed his arms and grinned. "We have ammo except for the launchers. We also have Flores and Doc's morita." He said.

"Great. So we can blow ourselves up if we get hungry." Carl said sarcastically. Zim gave him a menacing look before turning to Gossard.

"I was able to upload all the sector maps into this before the computer fizzled out." Gossard showed a hand held screen. "We also have enough power suit batteries for a few days."

Zim nodded and looked at his troopers. "We're going to live the simple life from here on out. If the natives can do it, so can we. Gossard, what's the situation on Doc?"

Gossard switched hand held screens. "It's a few miles south southwest from here." He shook his head. "But we have to pass through some terrain."

"Good, it should lead us to the nest. You're on point. Lead us there." Zim ordered much to the surprise of everyone else. "Troopers, we leave in 5." The troopers looked at each other in confusion-- a reaction not lost to the older officer. "Any problems with that?"

"Sarge, we have to find Rico and Flores." Brutto blurted out forgetting protocol because of annoyance. "Roughnecks never leave a man behind."

Andy smirked at the boy beside her. "Amazing. We agree on something." By the corner of her eye, she saw Higgins start filming. "Besides, if we hit that nest now, we'll be 3 short. The odds are bad enough."

Zim eyed the two he considered greenies menacingly. Brutto paled slightly remembering the horrors of having Basics with the same man. Andy, who didn't take Basics with Zim, met his expression with an equally defiant one of her own. "Give me something, Jenkins." He called out without breaking eye contact.

"They're alive. I just can't pin point where. They're probably beside the river somewhere." Carl answered after a few seconds.

"According to the map, the river turns southwest after a mile and a half. It's probably better to follow the river downstream. That way we're not away from our water source." Gossard added quickly seeing the tension between the 2 younger troopers and Zim escalate.

"Then we leave in 3." He said still staring the two down. "And if I hear a defiant tone out of the two of you again, I will personally call you in for insubordination. Do you get me troopers?"

"Sir, we get you, sir." They answered in unison.

"Alpha squad, come in Alpha squad." Rico stared up to the sky as he heard more static through the comm link. "Carl, Doc, Goss, T'Phai, Brutto, Andy" He paused in frustration. "Zim! Anyone!" There was no reply but static. He threw his helmet on the mud in anger.

Dizzy Flores picked up the fallen helmet and wiped the mud off before giving it back. Rico looked at her like she was kidding. "Johnny, the water screwed up the comm links. We fell through a waterfall. We can't do anything about it until we meet up with the rest of the squad. You need the head gear just in case anyway." She reasoned out.

Rico took the helmet back but didn't wear it. He sat on a rock and sulked instead. "You should've let go when I told you to. You shouldn't have to be here because of my stupidity." He said looking up at her.

"You would've done the same thing I did." Dizzy smirked. "Besides, if you haven't forgotten, Carl's a psychic. They'll find us."

Rico gave her a dry smile. "And if you haven't forgotten, psychics are a bit fried these days."

"Look, he's found us before and he'll find us again." Dizzy replied defiantly. "Can't you be more optimistic?"

"We're stuck in the Amazon with bugs and no food, no map, no medicine and no communications. What's there to be optimistic about?" He answered.

Dizzy shrugged. "At least it's pretty here." She smiled. "Come on Johnny, we survived worse than this. Where's your fighting spirit? I'm sure they're looking for us. If they haven't found us by nightfall we can set off an emergency flare. Someone has to notice a flare."

Rico gave her a small smile. "You know what, we could probably meet them half way." He said standing up. "If they're looking for us, they'll probably follow the river. We can go back the way we... dropped in."

"There you go. See? It isn't that bad." Dizzy replied playfully nudging Rico.

"Thanks Diz."

"Anytime."

The march downstream was quiet for the most part until T'Phai came up with a game to boost the morale of the unhappy troopers. He called it 'Arachnid mutations you did not want to see.'. Higgins quickly changed the long name into something shorter-- 'Bad Genetics'. Everyone but the Sergeant who now took point, took turns describing what they didn't want to see.The game worked and soon everyone's mood was slightly better than when the day had started.

"Chameleon bug." Higgins offered. "Can't see them."

Carl smiled. "Can't see or can't film Higgins?" he teased.

"Human bug." Brutto said matter- of- factly before mentally hitting himself when everyone older said "Xander" in unison.

T'Phai tapped Andy from behind. "It is your turn."

"Oh. Giant roaches." She said.

"I hate to break it to you Andy but that existed already. It's not new." Carl replied.

She nodded in agreement. "Exactly. Anything that survives 2 ice ages and a possible meteor catastrophe mixed with alien bug would be impossible to kill." She paused and shook her head. "Nah, I just hate roaches more than I hate spiders."

Brutto slowed down a little so he could keep pace with her. Andy eyed him suspiciously and placed a little bit more space between them. "Hey, thanks for sticking up for Rico and Flores with me. I've never seen anyone hold a look like that at Zim for so long before." He hesitantly said.

Andy looked at him slightly shocked making sure he wasn't joking about the gratitude. When she was convinced it was genuine, she shrugged. "Brutto, my parents were a lot scarier."

"You're not half bad Anderson." He replied before heading back up in front.

Gossard smiled when he saw the two younger troopers make peace. Finally the squad was a united front again. The game continued. Bearcat bug. Dolphin bugs. Eagle bug. All very good suggestions. But he believed his suggestion was the best.

"Pihrana Bug." He said. "It's small, it swims and it eats flesh in less than a minute."

The Sergeant reached for his morita without any signal to stop. This gesture wasn't lost to the troopers. They were suddenly silent and readied their own weapons looking around for bugs. But there were none visible yet. They kept going straight noticeably slower than they had. The game was over.

"Bugs!" Zim announced to the troopers behind him as he started shooting off at the space in front of him "T'Phai, Gossard, the ripplers!" He gestured with one hand pointing on the river rapids. "Anderson, Higgins, spiders on the trees. Brutto up front with me." He ordered while still firing at what he saw in front of him.

The troopers looked around in confusion. The sergeant was still shooting but there weren't any bugs around. Zim turned to the water and started shooting. "What are you apes doing?" He demanded angrily.

"The old man finally flipped." Brutto stared at the red- faced officer.

"We have to take him out. Who has tranqs?" Carl asked the troopers beside him.

He saw Andy shake her head. "No meds. No tranqs."

T'Phai saw the Sergeant's foot start to pivot. "Take cover!" He shouted as Zim turned around continuing his gun fire at the invisible enemy. The troopers quickly ducked and rushed behind trees, boulders, and logs—anything that would protect them from the flying bullets.

Higgins dove behind the log Carl was hiding behind. "Can't you turn him off?"

Carl shook his head. "No. I might cause permanent damage."

"Hig, Jenkins!" They heard Gossard yell. "Get out of there!" Zim changed to plasma fire. Jenkins and Higgins started running in opposite directions away from the doomed log.

"We need to tackle him, Brutto." Gossard said to the younger trooper hiding behind a tree next to his.

Brutto took a glimpse at the kamikaze Zim. "Oh yeah. No problem. It's just live ammo." He replied sarcastically. "We need a distraction!" He shouted out.

Andy slid behind a boulder as Zim torched the tree she was behind and picked up a few pebbles. She counted to three before standing up and throwing the pebbles at wild man. "Hey Zim!" She started running drawing Zim's fire. A blast behind her knocked her off her feet and skid a few feet.

Brutto and Gossard quickly tackled Zim before he could let loose the charge aimed at Andy. Higgins quickly helped pin him down as the sergeant was fighting his way. His hand tried to reach the fallen morita to no avail. Jenkins flicked the weapon away with his mind. The sergeant's punch landed on Higgins but Jenkins was already there to hold him down.

"What is this mutiny?" The sergeant shouted out as he tried to land a few more punches.

"I've always wanted to do this." Brutto said before he punched Zim squarely on the face. The sergeant became limp and the troopers backed up.

T'Phai offered his hand to Andy and helped her stand up. "Are you alright?" He asked concerned with the bleeding on her right arm.

Andy nodded absent mindedly checking her arm. "It's just a few minor cuts. Just let me take care of this for a sec." She said as they made their way to the group. She sat on part of a shattered boulder. "Now I know what a bug feels like."

The group watched as Carl slowly took of the sergeant's helmet. "He's burning up. It might be heat exhaustion or heat stroke. That explains the hallucinations."

"Great. What else can go stinking wrong?" Brutto replied.

Gossard sighed. "Why didn't he say anything? He must've known the symptoms."

"Pride." T'Phai offered an explanation. "He did not want to show weakness."

"Nice. What are we going to do now?" Brutto asked the older four troopers expecting an explanation, command, suggestion—anything.

"Um. Reporter." Higgins said recording the situation with his camera.

"I fix machines not people." Gossard answered when Brutto's eyes fell on him.

"I am unsure of human physiology." T'Phai answered the boy.

"How about let's get him to shade and out of this death trap power suit." Carl suggested. "It might cool him off a little."

Brutto sighed. "Where's Doc when you need him?"

The rain had started to pour heavily in the rainforest. Dizzy and Rico waited it out inside a cave behind the waterfall they fell from. The cave echoed the sound of thunder outside. For once, Rico was extremely glad that the flame thrower still worked even after being submerged in water. Otherwise, they wouldn't have a fire going and they won't be able to see anything inside the cave.

"This is boring." Dizzy said standing up. "I'm going to go explore. Be back in a bit." She lit up a tree branch from their small pile of wood and headed deeper in the cave.

"Don't make me go after you!" Rico called after her. Rico watched as her figure became smaller and finally disappeared.

Rico woke up to a person shaking him violently. He apparently had dozed off after Dizzy took off. "Rico. Wake up."

He swatted Dizzy's hand away. "Five minutes Diz. Promise." He lazily answered.

Dizzy rolled her eyes and continued shaking him anyway. "Come on, you need to see this. It's a whole nest."

Rico immediately sat up and reached for his flame thrower. "Where?" He asked. Dizzy led him down the way she went. There were burnt bugs littered here and there—obviously her work since she had hers readied as well. It wasn't long until they cave ended high up in a giant cavern. Rico looked down to the millions of eggs on the water and on the side the cavern walls. Nurser bugs were busy giving new aspects of life from a collection of cocoons on one side of cavern wall to the newly hatched bugs.

Rico shuddered when he saw the cocoons. Most of the shapes looked oddly familiar. They looked exactly the same as the cocoons of MI troopers in Tesca. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Troopers right?" Dizzy whispered pointing at the cocoons he was looking at earlier.

He nodded. "We need to see if any of them are still alive. It doesn't look like they have look outs yet." He scanned the area for any dangerous bugs. When he was convinced there weren't any, they both scaled down the walls and hid behind the bug eggs while heading to the cocoons. They started slicing the cocoons open. Much to their dismay, they were right. There were some animals but there were also troopers.

Dizzy sliced open her fifth trooper and gasped. "Rico, It's Doc." She quietly said. The other freed troopers were starting to come around behind her. She shook her friend a bit until he woke up. Rico was looking over and waited beside her.

Doc opened his eyes and squinted trying to focus his sight. "Welcome back." Rico grinned.

"I'm not in heaven am I." He answered groggily.

Suddenly, stingers rained down on the troopers missing their mark. Dizzy instinctively aimed her flame thrower up wards. "Kamikazes, boys." She warned.

Doc and Rico grabbed the moritas of the other troopers who were just waking up and fired at the flying bugs. Three of the troopers they had freed started to help them fight off the bugs. Spiders and warriors started appearing from various openings of the cavern.

"This isn't good." Rico heard a trooper behind him say.

He took a deep breath. "No kidding."

Zim felt a cup near his lip tilt and swallowed the hot flowery liquid inside. He turned his head to one side and started coughing. "He's awake." He heard a boy say dryly. He opened his eyes slowly and waited for everything to focus.

"Higgins?" His speech was still a bit slurred.

"Great. He knows my name. No more bad crazy." He offered the drink to him again which he took still a bit confused.

He tried to stand up from the sitting position but a hand steadily pushed him back down. "I don't think so Sarge. Here drink this. It'll keep you calm." Jenkins said as he took the bowl from the reporter.

He looked around trying to asses the situation. They were under a giant tree shielding them from the rain and had a struggling fire going. Jenkins was beside him with Higgins while Brutto was keeping watch.

"What happened?" He asked before noticing he was only wearing his damp black infantry shirt and track pants. "Where's my power suit, Jenkins?"

Jenkins pointed at the empty power suit to one side. "As far as we can tell, You suffered heat exhaustion and started hallucinating."

"That's putting it mildly." Brutto added without much humour. "You thought we were surrounded by bugs then you thought we were bugs and started shooting at us."

Higgins eyed the boy menacingly for a second. "Not helping, Brutto." He said.

"He almost fried you. He almost fried us all." He pointed out.

"Again. Not helping." Higgins replied. Jenkins and Zim watched the birth of another useless argument.

"So, we took you out of the power suit to bring your temperature down. You're lucky it started raining. If it was as hot as yesterday and you didn't cool off, we'd have to look for a new sergeant—again." Jenkins continued.

Zim nodded and drank more of the hot liquid in the coconut shell. He was surprised to it had flowers floating on top of it. He stared at it suspiciously. "What is this?"

"Chamomile— Andy came back from perimeter for awhile. It has a mild sedative effect which helps calm you down therefore you don't overheat." Higgins answered. "And we do not want you to overheat."

"Ever." Brutto added dryly.

--

The rain had only started to stop when a loud rumbling sound echoed through the forest. A small tremor soon followed. The forest grew silent for a few seconds before resuming their normal activity. T'Phai, Gossard and Andy stopped in their tracks. The skinny shrugged his shoulders when he met Gossard's eye as if saying-- it won't hurt to check on them.

Gossard opened his comm link. "Jenkins, Come in Jenkins."

"It wasn't us Gossard." Carl's voice came through.

T'Phai shrugged again. "Is there volcanic activity in the area?" He said.

Andy shook her head. "No, that can't be right. It sounded more like a rock slide."

"Alpha squad come in Alpha squad." A familiar voice filled with urgency suddenly came through the links.

Gossard quickly took one of the handhelds and answered the call. "This is Alpha Squad over."

"Gossard! It's Doc. Rico, Diz and a few other troopers are in a nest and we need back up."

"I have your position. You're not far off. We're on our way." Gossard turned to the other two he was with. "We better go." He said and started running back to camp with T'Phai and Andy behind him.

Zim stopped at a cave entrance hidden from view by vines and tree roots. It looked like it was only big enough so that they could crawl through which would be a problem for him because he wasn't in any form of a power suit. Besides from the boots, the head gear, the gloves, and the belt for lizard lines, the troopers wouldn't let him wear anything else. They called it non- essential and he wasn't happy about it.

There were two entrances they could've entered from. Zim had ordered to split the group up into two giving them higher chances to reach the others. "Numbers don't matter in narrow places." He had said. He had Higgins, T'Phai and Jenkins, who played navigator, with him while Gossard had Anderson and Brutto-- one map each. This was the only thing he did like about the operation-- he didn't have to deal with Brutto and Anderson not getting along.

After a few meters the narrow crawl space opened up to a much larger slippery cave. There were no eggs which means they haven't reached the nest Rico et. al. were in. But there were a lot of bugs protecting the nest deeper within which didn't like the intrusion. The chamber was one bug nest's security room.

Automatically, he watched Jenkins, Higgins and T'Phai stand in front of him and start shooting. He gave orders to use the flame throwers, the plasma, and the rest of the arsenal if needed while shooting down a few of his own. It wasn't an impossible battle. But it was obvious even if they didn't say anything. There was always one trooper beside him even when the other two were further off while all were trying to do as much damage as possible. He needed to be guarded because he wasn't in a body suit that could've helped protect him or at least buffer injury. He didn't let it show but suddenly, he felt very under dressed and it wasn't because it was colder inside.

In a few minutes, the bugs knew they were out matched by the four troopers. With many laying dead or near dead, some in piles because of the small bombs and grenades, they retreated inward to re group. Zim looked at Jenkins. "Where to?"

Jenkins pointed down the slipery chamber. "Through there." He said. They cautiously made their way down.

Gossard took point as they entered the second entrance behind a waterfall. There was some burnt wood near the entrance and more burnt bugs when they made their way inside. But there was one slight interesting complication which didn't surprise him given that this was a Brutto he was with. Max Brutto proving he was the old sergeant's son, started the whole conversation.

"This is Flores' work." Brutto said as he stepped over another burnt bug.

Gossard smiled. "Psychic now Brutto?"

"Hey, Flores is the only one who'd leave these bugs well done. Doesn't take a freak to see that." He replied.

His sparring partner looked at his hand held. There wasn't anything just yet. "I didn't know you like your bugs medium rare." He quipped.

Brutto stopped walking. "Hey!" He called out while Andy passed him. "I'd take them as long as they're dead."

"Must be a new delicacy around here that only Brutto knows." Gossard told Andy. "It is the Amazon."

"Bugs are the last thing I want to eat." He shot back.

"That was weak." Andy shook her head. "Brutto, if you can dish it out learn how to take it in." She said at her already ticked off squad mate behind her.

"Anderson, a smarty pants like you couldn't..."Brutto didn't finish his sentence as a blast shook the caves followed by echoes of machine fire and yelling for help. "Okay..."

"Well, this is the end of the line boy and girl." Gossard said pointing at a small exit. "One at a time now. No pushing." He charged his morita and grinned.

Rico pushed a trooper away from a diving bug. They were only able to free 6 troopers including Doc, all of which are now engaging the enemy. But the bugs kept coming, diving at them, jumping at them or sometimes just charging. He didn't know where the new swarm of Kamikazees came from anymore. All he had time for was to react and dodge the stingers that flew his way.

"I'm almost out of ammo Rico." He heard Dizzy call out. She threw a grenade to a group of charging.

"I'm out." Said another trooper as he fired his last bullets.

Suddenly, the swarm of Firefries diving towards the unarmed troopers exploded in blue fame. The trooper looked up to see two other troopers scaling down from a tiny opening while someone was providing cover fire from the opening. There were another four troopers coming from a bigger lower opening on the opposite end firing their weapons and pushing back the bugs. He watched as those troopers slowly made their way to them.

A younger trooper passed him a spare morita blindly. "Start firing." He ordered.

The trooper caught the weapon deftly. "Thanks." He said, letting loose a few charges of his own.

"Reunited at last." Rico said.

"Does it feel so good?"Doc smirked. "Hey, what happened to sarge?" He caught a glimpse of Jenkins shaking his head.

"You don't want to know." He answered.

"Did someone just follow little Brutto's first command?" Dizzy teased.

Brutto tossed her back her old morita when he noticed she just threw hers to the bugs. "Some people just know a leader when they see one."

"Kamikaze's 10 o'clock!" Another trooper yelled. The trooper instinctively dodged and landed beside T'Phai. He looked back and aimed just to see the end of 3 mid air explosions and pieces of bugs falling.

T'Phai lent the trooper his hand. "Free the rest." He said pointing at the cocoons. He turned around and saw a spider that was about to jump on him explode in mid air. He saw another trooper's confused face as the spiders behind him dropped dead.

"Where are those shots coming from?" The trooper asked.

Zim started a head count of the Roughnecks and sighed. "Where's Anderson?" He asked.

A flame erupted out of a tiny opening frying the hoppers that were heading there. A few seconds later, a giant Tesca spider fell from the ceiling a few feet off, crushing a number of warriors charging the group.

Gossard pointed to the tiny opening he came from, engulfed in flame again. "Said something about playing sniper."

"He's got some shot." The unknown trooper beside Higgins commented.

Higgins took step back before replying, "You mean, she."

The trooper that T'Phai ordered ran back to the group. "They're ok to move but they're pretty dazed."

"Hear that Lt. Rico?" Zim yelled out throwing his emptly weapon away. He immediately went to assit the newly freed troopers.

Rico nodded. "Brutto, tell Andy to cover us and meet us by the waterfall basin. We're going to exit where Zim came in. Gossard rig enough plasma timers to clean this place in 3 minutes but I don't want this place collapsing. SICON's going to kill me if we bulldoze the ecosystem."

"Way to simplify, Rico." Dizzy replied as she watched her friend fire less shots due to mental math.

The troopers slowly headed to their exit. On their way, Gossard threw a charges as far to the middle of the cavern as he can. Carl Jenkins was the last one to leave the cavern. A second after he entered, there was a small burst of blue flame by the opening. He looked back to see a plasma firewall. "Good girl, Andy." He thought.

"Hey, don't screw my head over now. I'm shooting!" Her voice said over the comm links. " By the way, I'm not a pet."

The troopers were already heading towards the calm waterfall basin when they heard Gossard yell the thirty second mark. In a few seconds, they were all trying to catch their breath.

"We made it!" A trooper said. A few cheers erupted from the group until Zim shot them an evil stare. They were silenced immediately and gave the Alpha squad baffled looks.The Roughnecks were staring at the waterfall almost obsessively as Gossard continued to countdown.

"10...9... 8... 7... Come on Andy... 4...3.." Gossard watched the clock warily. The other troopers heard his worried tone and remembered that there was still another trooper missing. A lone figure broke through the water fall's facade in a head first dive right before a shot of blue flashed through. Alpha squad breathed a sigh of relief. The troopers behind them started cheering.

Andy's head broke through the water without her helmet with her hair all loose from the dive. She swam towards where the troopers were waiting. Higgins helped pull her out of the water and as she laid on the ground trying to catch her breath, he said-- "You're going to give me a heart attack."

She started chuckling, raised herself to a sitting position. "Not if you guys blow me up first. This is the second time today someone tried to blow me up."

"Well if you do, it wasn't me." Brutto said. "It's probably Gossard."

"Hey!" Gossard shot back.

"Ok, what happened while we were gone? When did you two start getting along?" Dizzy asked looking from Brutto to Andy. "And why isn't sarge in a suit??"

Higgins brought out his camera. "I think I have it on film." He said.

Rico smiled as the squad started with their normal chatter. Every Roughneck was accounted for. "Someone call for evac." He ordered the other troopers. A trooper saluted him and answered with a prompt-- "Sir yes sir!"

The Amazon was far from clean. After the Roughnecks and apparently part of Romeo squad was evacuated, another squad was dropped off to check if the nest was history. It was. The Roughnecks cleaned one. Zulu had cleaned another and so had a few more MI squads. But we later learned that some squads were still missing or separated meaning that they've either been captured by the bugs or barely surviving. SICON is hoping it's the latter. Squads that had found each other like the Roughnecks were lucky. The Amazon rainforest had become more unforgiving.

_ Robert Higgins:: The Roughnecks _


	3. Chapter 3

STC 3: Alpha and Sierra

Doc looked over the fallen boulders they were hiding behind and into the gorge. Sierra had been pinned back to a corner dutifully holding their line. There were a few of them that weren't moving behind the line. Doc was hoping that those soldiers weren't critically injured. It would be almost impossible to get them to higher ground for fleet to pick up otherwise.

"It looks like Sierra crashed their party." Doc said. He joined the crouching group checking out the situation below. "They have 3 down. Hopefully just minor injuries."

Rico lowered his visor at the bugs and shook his head. "They're not very popular are they." He flipped his visor up and looked at his squad mates. "Well? What do you think?"

The troopers eyed their lieutenant with slight humour. "The LT. wants options." Zim sighed. Rico had never gotten used to being the commanding part of the label commanding officer much to Zim's slight amusement. A natural born leader that couldn't still find it in himself to actually lead-- which is probably why MI had allowed a veteran like him to transfer in the squad.

"We can go down there and join the party." Dizzy Flores suggested with a grin on her face.

"Yeah, but did we RSVP?" Carl Jenkins said sarcastically. Dizzy gave him a light whack at the back of his head. The group automatically hid in the shadows as a firefry flew by.

Gossard took another look at the opposite ridge and found a large overhang. "We can blow up the other side to fall on the bugs."

"Negative. We'll kill them in the process." Zim countered.

"We can do anything." Brutto shrugged. "Does it really matter? Velasco's a psychic freak and we're going to get swarmed anyway."

"Nah. We don't need to help them out. Rescuing them would take too much effort." Ashley Anderson said with a wide smile. "Why ruin all this nice sun? We should just stay here and watch. Colonel looks like he's enjoying the weather."

T'Phai nodded. "I am. It is quite warm."

Andy went back to watch the action. "See? So I say we sit back, relax, and and watch the gore." She said cheerfully. "Let me tell the Kenzies and Lee first though, they might want to leave." The troopers stared at her with disbelief. Zim started shaking his head.

"Doc, maybe you have to take a look at her." Dizzy said.

"Always said she was weird." Brutto added.

"You must really hate Sierra." Higgins said pointing his camera at her.

She spun back at him grinning. "Hate is such a strong word. I just really really really don't like them." She replied.

Rico raised both his hands before everything could go out of hand. "Ok ok. Here's what we do. Sgt. Zim, tell Lt. Velasco our position. Tell them to get ready. Goss, tell fleet to be ready for dust off when we call. Dizzy, Carl, Doc, Higgins, Brutto, Zim and I are going down there to join the fray. Goss, T'Phai and Andy, cover us and buy us time to get out. Blow this place up when we're out of range. We're in then we're out. Let's make this quick and watch your backs." The troopers nodded in agreement. "Live forever Roughnecks."

--

Sierra squad looked up in confusion when the firefries and hoppers diving for them suddenly exploded in mid- air. A bulky middle aged man grinned. Unfazed, he shot a few more rounds through a few more warriors. "Just a little bit more men!" He yelled at his squad. His troopers let out a half- hearted "Sir yes sir". Laser fire, plasma rounds filled the battle field as Sierra pushed for their survival. Behind him, he heard a much younger voice ordering his own squad while they scaled down the canyon walls. Velasco rolled his eyes as he heard "Doc and Hig, check out the injured first." He would never be caught commanding with so little force behind the words. He was equally surprised when he didn't hear a reply-- apparently, in his opinion, Alpha squad didn't have the old discipline instilled in them anymore. A few more flying arachnids mysteriously dropped dead causing some members of Sierra to look at each other with confusion for one second before going back to the taks at hand-- killing bugs.

"Lt. Velasco." A smaller man rushed a few meters away to help hold the line. "SICON wants you out of here."

"Thanks for the assist, Lt. Rico." He said dripping indifference. "Your men can get the injured first."

A lady suddenly appeared a few steps beside him. "Already on the way, sir." Dizzy said with much enthusiasm.

Velasco rolled his eyes for the second time-- Alpha had a girl. He saw three troopers from Alpha on the line. "You must be the one I keep hearing about holding Alpha down." He told Dizzy when Rico dodged hoppers stingers and was out of earshot. Velasco took a few steps forward.

"Excuse me?" Dizzy's eyes widened in anger.

Brutto eyed the other LT menecingly. "Hey, we're not the ones who got ourselves in this corner."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Carl added.

"Flores, Jenkins, Brutto-- shake it off or give it to the bugs." Zim ordered in his usual snappy tone.

Velasco grinned. He knew Zim from way back and always approved of his commanding presence. The three troopers remained silent but it didn't matter. He had read the nasties in their minds already including Zim's thoughts on him breaking formation. He saw the one called Jenkins eye him as he read his. He gave the younger trooper a smug grin. Jenkins looked away immediately and automatically, Velasco was blocked out.

--

Gossard and T'Phai let loose a few more launchers at the flying bugs trying to get at them. Gossard glanced at the scene below as bugs lower in the air and those that are threatening the evac of the injured up the ridge explode. The two heard the younger girl in between them groan while grabbing a new clip.

"That idiot." She said. She hurriedly got back on her crouching position.

T'Phai stole a fast glance down at the younger girl in between them. "How are you aiming? You do not have the visor down." He stated calmly.

" It centers too slow. Too many circles. Too confusing." Andy said absentmindedly before suddenly letting out her frustration. "Like it's not hard enough cover Doc and Higgins from here, now he has to put himself ahead of everyone else?" She rapidly fired three shots that meant the end of three more bugs. "You know, if he has a death wish, I'd gladly shoot him myself." She exclaimed to no one in particular.

Gossard flipped his visor to look down at the line and saw the cause of the younger trooper's general outburst. "Talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity." He teased. Sierra's officer was clearly a few feet ahead of everyone else. He could be surrounded by bugs at all three sides if he wasn't careful. "A whole new meaning to friendly fire right there."

T'Phai continued firing. "I never understood why it is called friendly fire."

"You and me both Colonel." She smiled before shooting a few more off Doc and Higgins' space.

A brief crackle interrupted the three troopers on top for a second before they continued firing at their respective responsibilities. "Ok people, lets wrap this up." They heard Rico say.

T'Phai started going his way to help Doc and Higgins fight off the flying arachnids as per the plan. "I will take my leave." He said before heading out.

"Finally." Gossard said as he brought down a few more bugs that had noticed them and took a look at the slowly retreating squads.

Andy didn't break her gaze on the events below. "If you wanted to have a moment with the bugs, I can leave too." She said while firing rounds into the bug crowd. She turned on her comm link. "Lt. Velasco, This is private Anderson. I need you to take a few steps back. There's not enough space between you and the bugs to..."

"Private Anderson," He cut her off, "I do not take requests from Sierra washouts." He answered much to the surprise of Gossard. He quickly stole a glance and the younger girl shooting in a faster succession.

"Did I just hear that right?" He asked. The girl nodded in confirmation and sighed, checking her temper.

"Sir, with all due respect, you're compromising not only your safety but the safety of both squads. I can't pick the crawlies off one by one while you retreat so please..." She was cut off again.

"Then you're not doing a very good job are you? Velasco out." He answered with his tone dripping with disdain.

--

Brutto was taking his anger out on the bugs as they back pedalled to the ridge. The Roughnecks and Sierra had all heard the conversation between the Lt. Velasco and the ex- Sierra trooper. Silence took over Alpha squad but Sierra seemed far too used to conversations like this and remained their usual self. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rico push a Sierra soldier away from the jaws of an Arachnid just to have that bug blown to bits from above. He smirked. Sierra now knew who's behind all the mysterious bug explosions with that conversation.

Suddenly, he saw an warrior launch itself at Lt. Velasco who was distracted giving orders to his people behind him. But before he can pivot and turn, he heard Flores' yell "Watch out!". In a flash, she was able to lunge and shove Velasco out of harms way-- but the arachnid took her while she was in mid air. The bug had her pinned in her abdomen between its jaws as it waved her around like a rag doll.

"Diz!" He heard Rico and Carl yell out almost in unison. Velasco laid in the ground stunned. But before any of them on the ground could aim and fire, the arachnid was shot down and slumped over. Rico dropped his morita and hurriedly ran to pry the warrior's jaws open. Alpha squad covered him as he went. He carried the unconscious Flores behind the line of troopers. Velasco ran back with him.

"Doc! It's Diz!" Rico yelled over the comm link obviously panicked.

Immediately a trooper could be seen scaling down the ridge walls. He shook his head at the diagnostics. "Unstable, broken ribs, internal bleeding-- she has to get out of her now."

Suddenly a firewall appeared right in front of the bug line and rose up to the top of the canyon. A few seconds later, a blue plasma wall came up a few meters ahead of it.

"Roughnecks, Sierra evac now!" Zim shouted. The troopers immediately rose from the canyon as a few more sound of explosions filled the air and a few more swarms of flying arachnids met their death in a fatal fall. When the last soldier went over the near vertical wall, they watched as four missles hit the right canyon wall creating a rock slide that occupied where they just were.

--

The Arizona base was busy with the usual hussle. There were soldiers heading out for a new mission. There were soldiers heading inside to rest or to receive new orders. But the buzz emminating from the the whole base in general was balanced by the silence inside the Medical center. Two squads waited impatiently as the doctors placed the critically wounded inside a tank of green liquid. For Sierra, there was Jason Lee to worry about-- the stingers had gone through his leg. For Alpha, there was the brave Isabelle Flores.

Rico and Carl stood nervously when they saw the doctor heading towards them from the glass window of the waiting room. The rest of the squad stayed where they were. Zim and Brutto were leaning against the glass window with the elder looking at the tanks and the younger looking at the floor. T'Phai, Doc and Gossard were sitting down on a bench while Higgins filmed in one corner. Andy was leaning against the wall right beside the door with her arms crossed.

The door to the waiting room opened. Immediately, she raised her hands as Rico and Carl bombarded her with concerned "Is she going to be ok?", "How long until she's released?" questions. Velasco merely stood up and crossed his arms. Rico and Carl fell silent with one look from the lady.

"They're going to be fine. Private Lee's leg," She looked at Lt. Velasco, " would take time to heal because of the bug's poison. He should be fine in a few weeks. But he has to take it easy for a few days after to make sure the leg is 100." Two Sierra troopers who looked almost exactly alike sighed in relief. Velasco did nothing more than smirk.

Rico tapped his foot impatiently. "And Diz?" He asked.

The doctor turned to him and turned the page on her clip board. "Ms. Flores suffered 4 fractured ribs and internal bleeding which we were able to stop. The tank will make the healing process faster. We put her under tranquilizers so she'll sleep through the pain and she won't be able to move to aggravate her condition. She's stable." She watched as Rico sat down on the bench with relief. "She should be fine in a few days to a week if nothing else happens."

"Can we stay here for a little bit?" Higgins asked suddenly lowering his camera and turning it off. The doctor nodded and left the room followed by Doc.

A hugh sigh of relief passed through the whole Alpha squad. Zim placed his hand Rico's shoulder . "It'll be ok Rico. Just stay here for now." He said with a I'll- take-care- of- everything tone before he moved towards the door.

"Thanks, Sarge." Rico said quietly.

Doc came back from speaking with the doctor. "She always did know how to take our breath away." He said illiciting some chuckles from the squad.

Velasco smirked as he slowly headed towards the door. "So this is the great Alpha squad." He said arrogantly. "One little injury and they go crying. What did you do to Razak's squad?"

"Yeah, the LT. Could've taken that bug down. That girl over reacted and look what happened." The soldier behind Velasco said.

The Roughnecks all came to life and eyed the other squad coldly. "What did you just say?" Brutto took a few steps forward to the soldier that commented behind Velasco. "Because I think I saw you cowering in fear before Andy shot down the Kamikaze that wanted to eat you."

Rico stood up and confronted the veteran lieutenant. "This is your fault and you know it. You were already told to fall in and you refused. You're the one who didn't keep an eye out for bugs. It should be you inside that tank not Dizzy. Your endangered everyone here and put my friend in danger." He said angrilly ready to hit the older man but Carl had pulled him back.

"Rico, don't." Carl warned as Gossard and Doc moved to stand in front of him while T'Phai had his hands full with the younger Brutto who was still glaring at the other trooper.

Velasco gestured for his squad to leave. He stopped by the door and glared at Andy. "You suit this pitiful excuse for a squad, washout."

Andy held her equally threatening glare at her old commanding officer. "We're not the stupid ones who had to be rescued Sir." She said with a small smug smile. Velasco passed her by and left the room. She held her gaze for five more troopers that left with various insults against her much to worsening temper of everybody there. Brutto was ready to pick a fight but T'Phai held him back and Andy herself shook her head. When the door finally slid shut leaving just two Sierra troopers, T'Phai and Carl let the two they were holding back go.

"It's his fault Dizzy is in there and he has the guts to say that?" Rico exclaimed. "Unbelievable!"

"Andy you can't make them get away with that." Brutto demanded.

"Who said they were?" Andy said heading towards the two Sierra troopers. "What happened to Lee?" She asked concerned.

The two chestnut haired troopers stepped forward to look at the glass. "Lee needs to learn how dodge faster." One chuckled.

The other went to the Roughnecks. "Thanks for getting us out of there by the way. And you Lt. Rico are doing a great job. Between you guys and us man, those men could lift a transport bug with their heads."

"Yeah, A transport bug each." Gossard said. "If we pop them, we might be able to blow all the bugs on Earth back to Klendathu."

"Princess," the first one gave Andy a big hug which the second one followed after. "We thought we recognized the great marksmanship to be yours."

"Princess?" Doc said curiously.

Andy gave them a big smile. "But sir John, that's only because you're aim is so bad. Beside you, anybody looks spectacular-- even Sir Bryan." The three started laughing and heading towards the door.

"So, should we plan another round of Gits?" the one named Bryan asked with an evil smile on his face. "We've so missed having you."

"What is Gits?" T'Phai asked but he was never answered.

"Bet your hearts out we will." Andy stated as they walked out of the room "I was thinking about diuretics..." The door slid closed leaving the rest of the squad wondering what that sight was all about.

"I'm confused." Higgins finally said.

--

The squad slowly left Rico on his own inside the Medic center. When he was finally alone, Rico stood up and placed his hand against the cool tank glass that kept Dizzy suspended in green liquid. Not so long ago, the situations were reversed. He was the one in the tank and she was outside so concerned for his well being she convinced Lt. Ibanez to give him a chance at her.

He looked at the floating girl and gave her a small smile. It was odd for him to see a girl with so much energy be sedated. "Doc said you'll be ok." He said lamely. "I should've had your back Diz, you always had mine." He stayed there for awhile, watching the girl float, wishing he was in that tank instead. "Come on Dizzy, come back to me." He said sitting back down with his head on his hands.

--

Gossard and Doc entered the mess hall just in time to see 5 Sierra soldiers running off passing them by. They watched as Andy left the Alpha table laughing and went to a table where 2 equally amused troopers were eating finding themselves suddenly abandoned by their own squad. They exchanged hi fives and a short conversation before Andy left and cheerfully said greeted them with one word. "Gits." She nodded and was on her way out.

The two confused troopers slowly made their way to the Sierra table seeing as their table was empty. The McKenzies motioned them to take a seat while stil laughing their heads off. They produced a small camera and passed them to Gossard and Doc to watch the playback. The two roughnecks stared as the table went from their usual boisterous chatter to the different reactions of 5 troopers to the same troopers running out of the mess hall.

"Did you see Alexander's reaction? That was priceless!" The one across Doc said. "But where are our manners. John McKenzie." He said putting out his right hand and shaking Doc and Gossards. "My twin brother Bryan." The one across Gossard did the same as his brother.

"Jeff Gossard." He said amusingly.

"Richard Lecroix." Doc said returning the small camera to the English brothers. "Doc for short."

Bryan nodded. "Yes, we know who you are. The Princess mentioned the both of you when you came in just in time to see our Gits result. King Mechanic and Master Medic."

"What is Gits?" Doc asked.

John placed his mug down laughing. "Oh, they're little pranks we pull when Velasco the viper and his minions become an absolute pain. All temporary of course, nothing serious although I'm sure the world rather it be permanent."

Bryan shrugged. "They never catch us. It's not surprising if those 5 catch the same condition anyway. They're always together. It makes you wonder what they do inside the squad room when we're not around."

His brother gave a good hearty laugh. "Oh Bryan. Spare me the visual."

"Actually, about your L.t.? Is he always that..." Doc paused having trouble find the word.

"Vapid. Evil. Heinous?" John offered frankly much to Doc and Gossard's amusement. "No. He used to be worse. The man thinks he's better than everyone else and thinks that ladies shouldn't be in the infantry because they're inferior. Misogynist basically-- like he's god's gift to the bug killing world." John rolled his eyes.

Bryan shook his head. "You and your Lt. people didn't hear that little comment he gave your brave Private Flores when she arrived but I think some of you did. Shameful really. Private Flores, by the way, was awsome out there. It's a good thing Andy was taken out of the squad when she was or she would've been literally dead by now. But we do miss her."

"You mean Lee, you and I miss her. Those minions couldn't care less." His brothers said.

Gossard leaned forward concerned. "Wait. What do you mean by she would've been dead by now?"

The chatty brothers paused and looked at each other in confusion. "Well, didn't the princess tell you why she got reassigned?" John asked.

Doc gave the two a confused look. "Something about insubordination."

The brothers shook their heads at the same time. "Oh no that wasn't it because if it were then we'd be looking for a new squad too." John answered.

"That was just the tip of the iceberg my friend. At first, the higher ups won't grant Velasco's reassignment request. Lee, John and I had to go there ourselves and explain the dire situation without the Viper knowing." Bryan replied.

John sighed. "The Viper had a death wish for her. She was always either on point or securing an area or doing perimeter-- alone. Always the first one in and the last one out alone. She would be the most in need of medicine but minion medic Alexander would treat her last and slowly."

"It came to a point that she was sneaking out to the VR in the middle of the night because she knew that if she missed a shot on the field and we weren't around, no one would cover her. How do you think she got to that level? She simply couldn't afford to miss." Bryan took a sip off his mug. "I'm betting she still does that sneaking off thing out of pure habit. She was only bagged for insubordination because there was this time in Indonesia when she didn't follow the Viper's orders to pick the bugs off one by one when we were already flanked and wrecked a dam to wash the bugs away. Very itsy bitsy spider."

"You forgot the minions, Bryan. The minions were just a bunch of gits." John shook his head again. "They wouldn't stop teasing and pushing her around. They could get so medieval with absolutely no concern if she got hurt or not. We tried to pry them off her as best we could because we thought she was just taking it and for the life of us we couldn't understand why a smart girl like her wasn't fighting back." John suddenly grinned. "Until we caught her one day with itching powder."

Bryan mimicked his brother's sly grin. "And everybody's boots except ours of course. Then all the odd things that happened to the Viper and the minions made sense-- the mild electricutions, the harder spring back of their moritas, the allergy attacks-- Gits was born and we three joined in the fun."

Gossard and Doc just watched the two laughing as they remembered some prank about eye drops while they were in shock about what they just heard. Suddenly, the small screen beside the table came to life. "Alpha and Sierra squads, you are to report to room 37 at 1400 for a joint mission." It said.

Bryan moaned. "There goes our plans for the Viper meeting the plague."

"There goes our R&R." Gossard replied.

--

Room 37 at 1400 was a mass of tension. The Roughnecks were at one side of the room, Sierra was on the opposite wall and a 3-d hologram of the Grand Canyon slowly rotated in between them. The room was quiet. Most of the people in each squad eyed the other with contempt. The door slid open revealing a pompous Velasco, a haggard frustrated Rico and another SICON officer. The lieutenants went to their respective squads and the officer started the briefing.

A red dot started blinking on the hologram. "This is sector, not far off from where Sierra was picked up earlier today. Intel believes that this sector is the bugs base for the whole western North America. You will be split into three teams and will be dropped here, here and here." He pointed out in the hologram. "Obviously one team would be a mix of the two squads. Your POA is to tag the bug's stronghold in these canyons and retreat, leaving fleet to destroy the place. Any questions?"

T'Phai raised his skinny hand. "Only two MI squads for a mission of this calibre?"

The officer nodded curtly at the skinny. "Unfortunately, you two are the only ones in the immediate area that have not sustained heavy casualties and are not deployed. Any other questions?" Silence filled the room. "Good. You leave at 1800. Good luck troopers." He said and left the room.

"Great. Textbook definition of suicide mission." Rico murmurred to the Roughnecks when he turned his back to face them. "We might as well have Sierra kill us all."

"Rico." Carl said warning the other about Velasco's psychic abilities by tapping his head.

"I know I know." He replied a bit short tempered. "Ok. So, who wants in on the third team." Nobody raised their hands and Rico sighed. "I thought so." He said to himself. He heard a small sigh and felt a small pat on his shoulders. He faced the reluctant volunteer.

"A mix of two MI squads-- it could be interesting." Higgins said stepping forward with his camera already whirling.

"I'll go." Andy said. "I'll pry the super stars away from Higgin's camera." She stepped forward much to Doc and Gossard's dismay.

Doc grabbed hold of the girl's arm and spun her around. "Sierra will feed you to the tigers."

"No harakiri for you." Gossard added pulling her back. "You don't know which one of those are going and we've got one on the tank already."

Andy faced the two veteran troopers and took her hand back when it dawned on her what they meant. "The twins." She sighed. "Then you know they'll eat Higgins alive. I can take whatever they can dish out." She said only loud enough for her squad to hear. Doc and Gossard was still giving her that concerned gaze of uncertainty. "Why don't one of you tag along then? We'll need a marauder specialist. I doubt they'd lend us their one and only Thomas." She suggested.

Gossard took a step forward and shrugged at Doc. "Rico has a tendency to fall through holes-- this is the Grand Canyon. You're going to be busy." He told Doc grinning.

Rico gave the three a grateful look for taking away the burden of actually having to force people into the mixed group. He turned around and challenged Velasco.

Velasco turned around to his own troopers. "Troopers, who wants to join them?" He asked. Immediately two hands shot up much to Velasco's own disgust at their eagerness. "Alright, twins. You've made your bed. The rest of you apes, file out." Sierra's squad quickly left the room glaring at the rest of the Alpha squad although they were visibly paler than their last encounter. The twins started grinning.

"So." Bryan said stepping forward to his new team. "Which L.t. do we obey?"

"Rico." All three Roughnecks said in unison.

John nodded. "I thought so."

"No arguments there." Bryan grinned.

--

Zim took a deep breath before taking a step inside the medic center. He examined the lone figure leaning his head on the tank's glass. It was the wrong time to have a mission like this with one man down. It was especially painful for him to watch these two in this condition. He knew what she meant to him even when he taught them Basics.

He cleared his throat and Rico was at attention immediately. Old habits die hard after all. "Rico, we need to go son." He said as gently as possible.

The boy nodded and let his hand slide down the glass. "Right." He mumbled.

"The others have been here?" He asked. Rico nodded absentmindedly again. Zim placed both his hands on Rico's shoulder and turned him so that he was facing away from the tank. "Rico, she'll be here when we come back. The faster we finish this up, the faster we can get back and watch over her."

Rico shrugged the older man's hands away. "I know Sergeant." He placed his hand on the tank glass again. "Don't worry Diz, I'll be back. We'll be fine." He said quietly before turning around to hesitantly leave.

Zim looked up at the tank himself. "I'll watch him for you Flores. You just get yourself well." He said before leaving the medic lab himself.

--

The night was cool in the Grand Canyon. It was a sharp contrast to the dry heat they were in just a few hours earlier. Brutto looked down over the canyon ridge. According to Intel, down there is where they start their exploring. The problem was, they couldn't see what's below. It could be crawling. He flipped his visor down to see the world through night vision filters. Automatically, the visor pin pointed 10 warriors standing by alert in such a narrow strip in between cliffs directly below them and a few more scattered further on.

"It's starting to look like Intel's got it right this time." Brutto stated to the group. "There 10 right underneath us and a few more scattered beyond."

Carl looked at Rico after he opened his eyes. "They're near." He confirmed.

Rico looked around and smiled slyly when he found what he was looking for. "What do you guys think of going old school?" He asked pointing at a few hanging ledges and boulders.

"What does old school mean?" T'Phai asked much to the amusement of the rest of the squad.

"In this case, we start a "natural" rock slide." Zim explained briefly.

"A rock slide again?" T'Phai asked.

"The terrain makes it an easy choice to abuse." The sergeant answered.

Rico nodded in agreement. "Brutto and Sgt. Zim, set the charges on those cliffs. Doc, push those boulders overboard. The colonel, Carl and I will play look out just in case they see us. Questions?" The troopers looked at each other for a moment but said nothing. "Great. Let's do it." Rico ordered. They immediately broke out of the huddle grinning.

"They won't know what hit them." Doc commented as he maneuvered the marauder behind the said boulder. He heard a familiar bird call signaling that the charges were set. In a few tries, the boulder started rolling down the canyon loosening rocks that joined its descent down. The charges were set off. The rumbling of the the earth alerted the warriors but it was too late. Their screams of warnings to the other arachnids were short lived as they were buried under piles of rocks and debris.

Carl and T'Phai monitored the movement below as the dust settled each with their different methods. "We are clear." T'Phai grinned.

"Clear-- for now." Carl said.

"Great. Roughnecks!" Rico called out. "We're going down."

--

John tackled Higgins out of the way before a warrior could get him. They landed hard but John, as if he didn't feel anything, quickly rolled over and started shooting at the nearest warrior. "You're not joining your friend in the tank just yet FedNet." He said giving the fallen reporter a quick wink.

"Thanks." Higgins said standing up and tried shooting a few bugs of his own.

Bryan shook his head slightly as he launched a few missiles into the middle of the bug horde. "Actually John, I do believe they call him Paperboy."

John paused for one second before continuing his stream of gun fire. "That's an odd nickname. He does the telly not the paper."

"It really doesn't matter." Higgins mumbled as he tried to concentrate on shooting.

Andy laughed lightly. "Just start hoping he got your good angle." She dodged a few stingers before she shot the flying bug down. From the corner of her eye she saw Bryan unmindful of the hopper heading straight for him. "Hey Bryan!" She called out before shoving him out of harms way and shooting the arachnid down.

"Princess, you're my hero." He said in a fake dramatic tone.

Andy gave her friend a wry look then focusing in killing more bugs. "That has to be the saddest thing I've heard all day." She replied.

"Hey, I want some life saving from the Princess too. Bryan, we should switch." John said.

Bryan shook his head. "You already have Higgins. Don't be greedy."

"Hey, how come nobody's fighting over me? I'm by far the prettiest in the group." Gossard asked in the same humour as the conversation. He found their seemingly lack of any semblance of seriousness infectious. Suddenly there was a brief silence in the group only interrupted by gun fire and explosions.

John flinched. "Weeell, no offense Goss. I'd rather have a hug than tons of steel and ammo in the morning." He replied.

"Only if you'd stop tinkering with gadgets at night, King Mechanic." Andy answered.

"You guys are too demanding. By the way, you can bribe me with chocolate." Bryan suggested. "Or alcohol. Whichever works faster." He added. The twins and Andy started chuckling.

Higgins, however, was slightly baffled by the whole situation. "Do you guys always talk like this in these situations?" He asked in general. He cheered inwardly when the warriors he was aiming for fell dead ahead of him.

"Yes." Three voices answered at the same time and with the same relaxed tone. The three started laughing again.

"Well only when the viper and his minions aren't within earshot." Bryan answered. "Otherwise, we would've been reprimanded with spit fire and brimstone."

In a short while the battle was over. The bugs had retreated proving that the 5 troopers were enough to handle a big horde. Andy stared at the stars for one second before turning around to just to see two grinning twins behind her.  
"What?" She asked.

"Didn't know you were a romantic, Andy." John teased. Bryan placed his arm around his brother and gave the girl the same look.

She hit their helmet playfully with the morita as she passed them by. "It's much prettier from down here that it is close up, double trouble." She answered as they made their way to the marauder.

Higgins was filming the end battle then ran towards the huddle. "So, which one to we take? The left of the right?" He asked looking at the split in the direction they were heading.

Gossard pulled out the schematics Intel gave them on his marauder's screen. He looked at the diagrams and typed some more commands. "According to Intel, Sierra should have the left side because this place is like a weird triangle. We take the right by default." He said.

Bryan shook his head. "Intel couldn't find its way out of a Pavlov maze even when they use colossal blue cheese." He grinned looking at Gossard. "I say we screw Intel and go our own path."

"What? We can't do that." Higgins argued.

Bryan smiled deviously. "Yes we can. We're not in contact with any of the Lieutenants because of radio silence, this isn't an emergency, and we are our own autonomous team."

John sighed in defeat. "Out with it. What did you do, Bryan?"

The brother handed Gossard a hand held screen. "I tagged a warrior with a tracker when they were retreating. It's not like we have a hound here to track them down now do we? This makes it faster-- we follow it, find out if that is indeed where they're hiding and go home. "

"I can place their position in the marauder. Even if this isn't the base, we'll know when we need a heads up or avoid them." Gossard said incorportating the new data inside the marauder. "Genius!"

John started laughing much to the surprise of everybody else there. "Must be a twin thing." He said pulling out a hand held of his own and passing it to the marauder specialist. "I hope we didn't tag the same warrior."

"Does it matter?" Andy shared the twin's mischievous expression while pulling out her own hand held and passing it on. "I got a fly."

--

'Nothing like a bug hunt to get your juices flowing.' She had said in one of their first few days in Pluto. Carl smiled at the silly but appropriate memory of an energetic Dizzy covered in bug goo jumping in the fox hole. He shook the memory away immediately and came back to reality. There was no time to space out when they're literally hunting bugs. Unexpectedly, a flash of pain seared through his mind. He dropped his weapon trying to control the pictures flashing through his throbbing head. He fell to the ground.

"Carl!" He heard Rico call out coming to his side. And as fast as the pain came, the throbbing disappeared completely. "Carl, buddy, you alright?" Rico asked again more anxious than ever.

He nodded and slowly stood up with his friend's. "It's Sierra, they've been captured."

"Are they alive?" Zim asked.

Carl nodded again. "They are for now."

A crackle in the comm links alerted everyone. "Mayday mayday to all available teams. This is Private Mark..." There was a loud noice in the backround then transmission of a harried trooper was replaced by static.

The group looked at each other in relative shock. "Are you sure they're still alive now Carl? That sure didn't sound like it." Brutto commented.

"Positive." The psychic answered with more force. "They must be bringing them to a brain."

"Doc," Rico approached the marauder. "Can you trace where that transmission came from?"

Doc shrugged. "The transmission was too short for a decent trace. Gossard could probably do it but.."

"Then should we break radio silence? After all, the other two are also part of Sierra. They should be concerned." T'Phai stated.

Brutto shook his head. "If I were those twins, I'd be happy that lunatic has flown away." T'Phai gave him a sharp look. "What?" The human asked defensively. "It's not like they're nice."

Zim met Rico's eye and nodded in agreement. "Leave no trooper behind." He called on the old motto. "No matter how annoying they are." He added after a few seconds.

Rico took a few seconds to think with the rest of the squad waiting on his decision. "Right." He finally said. "Doc, get Gossard on the line and ask him to pin point that location... and ask them where they are. I can't believe we're going to rescue Sierra-- again."

--

John looked around at their handy work and grinned. Fallen arachnids were everywhere and they barely had a scratch. Another battle to the humans and another battle lost by the arachnids. He exchanged high fives with his friend Andy before giving Higgin's camera a cheeky, victorious grin for fun. Higgins started to smile before moving his camera to get a panoramic view of the canyon filled with dead bugs. "Wohoo!" John jumped off a dead warrior bug and fist pumped in the air.

Higgins lowered his camera for a second. "I think I got that. FedNet would love that shot."

"I'm not sure why you're so happy." Andy said when he landed. "After all, we followed your bug first and look where it landed us?"

John placed an arm around Andy's shoulder. "You know, I always did go after the wrong things, little sis."

Further away, Bryan approached Gossard and stowed his morita. "So, where to now chief?" He watched as Gossard hurriedly looked down at his console. Bryan turned around to see what he was looking at and saw two people laughing off the field out of earshot and slowly walking to them and a reporter filming the scene. It was a relaxed scene not fitting for a battle field but there it was. "You know king mechanic," He said leaning slightly on the marauder but then decided against saying anything more. "Forget about it. It's nothing."

Suddenly their comm links were filled with a distress call that was cut abruptly. "Well that didn't sound right." John reached his brother first with Andy following him. "But then it was Markus and he never sounds right."

Gossard's brow furrowed before he looked at them. "It was too short to trace but I think I have an algorithm..." He started to explain before he saw the impatient looks on their faces. "They're in sector."

"So, who won? Bryan or Andy?" John asked curiously.

A few clicks from the marauder later, he had the answer. "Best hunter award goes to Bryan." The winner took a bow while the contender gave him his applause.

"Aren't you guys even slightly worried about your squad?" Higgins asked slightly panicked.

"Of course we are-- albeit very little. But I don't think anybody has a good rescue plan yet FedNet." John answered quickly. He looked at his brother before he could speak. "I doubt we can do it with just five of us charging uninvited either."

Bryan shrugged. "It isn't our decision to break radio silence though... If we do, the bugs might be able to find us. Antennae and all."

"Green team, this is Blue team over." The five grinned at each other as the comm link came alive almost on cue.

"Blue team, this is green team. What's up Doc?" Gossard answered.

"Aww, that should be banned!" Bryan commented. "Too dated."

"Rico wants to know if you know where Sierra is." Doc replied.

Gossard grinned. "Already done-- as usual. Sierra is at sector which is closer to you than we are. We're slightly west of sector. By the way, you might not want to turn the next corner. Andy's Kamikaze is hanging out there."

"Andy's what?" Doc answered confused and the green team started chuckling. "Nevermind. You can tell me later." There was a slight pause before the transmission continued. "The guys here think we can get away with a shuffle."

Gossard sighed. "Let me guess, we're it."

"Are you psychic now too?" Doc replied. "According to intel's map, there's a pretty defensible narrow piece of canyon to the west of the bug hide out much like the one we picked Sierra off from today. If we're lucky, we'll get there up top before you run out of ammunition to get you out of there and have fleet come in."

"And if we're not lucky today?" Bryan asked dryly.

"Then fleet blows us all sky high." Doc said. They all groaned.

"That's another one that should be banned." John pointed out. "Too depressing."

--

Brutto did not like shuffles. He always found them far to the edge of wishful thinking. But oddly enough, they almost always worked. The bugs would detect a threat at one end while they infiltrate from the other less protected side. There would be a million and one contingencies and even more what-if's. Unfortunately, this whole bug war was a gigantic what- if as it is in his opinion so sometimes it didn't matter. But when the fate of the whole western North America was at stake and you have a friend recuperating, it mattered. He looked up at the sky from the shadows they were hiding like he was praying. He just didn't like the odds of this one. Watching one friend get in that medical tank was enough.

"Ah, Flores. Where are you when we need a crazy?" He mumbled.

"Did you say something Brutto?" Doc asked the younger trooper. He now has left his marauder behind. Going in with a marauder would be too difficult and slow for the operation. SICON was going to kill them for ordering another.

"Nah, nothing." He answered.

T'Phai looked back at both of them. "Quiet both of you." He said pointing at a lone warrior heading their way.

The ground beneath them shook. An explosion hit the opposite side of canyon island ridge. The screams of the arachnids filled the air as more explosions rocked their hide out. The warrior bug headed the opposite direction to join in the defense. The island was suddenly filled with activity as plasma bugs launched their offensive at all sides. The flying arachnids left their mounds circling the air to find where the attack was coming from.

Brutto watched as all the attention went the other way to where green team was hopefully ready to take on a full assault. He tapped his foot impatiently watching the others if they were ready to move. The longer they stayed immobile, the bigger the chance that they wouldn't be able to come out alive-- but they couldn't get caught either. He grinned as Zim emerged from where he was hiding followed by Rico and Carl. They slowly made their way towards the island.

There were still arachnids guarding the base as they entered the tunnels that the flyers had emerged from. Those were easily taken care of without much worry. Rico also made sure he was being careful where he stepped which amused Doc especially when he remembers what Gossard had said during their briefing. They made their way into the central cavern without much conversation-- even from Brutto. The sounds of machine fire and bombs echoing inside the walls no doubt reminded them that they did not have a lot of time until the five outside are over run. The earth underneath them moved slightly and small debris fell over them everytime there was a larger blast.

Then there it was-- the inner cavern. There were more bugs inside than there were guarding the hideout-- including the smaller spiders that would normally be in a forest instead of a desert. They formed a circle around the defiant but pale troopers who were held immobile by webs. Carl opened his eyes and shook his head. "There are two brains in this place." He whispered to the others.

T'Phai pointed one skinny finger at large opening below where the bugs had started to part. "Here comes one." He said.

"We can't let that obese bug get near any of the troopers." Rico watched as the brain bug neared Lt. Velasco.

Zim nodded. "You heard the Lt. Doc, Brutto with me. We're going down to save those troopers while Rico, Jenkins and T'Phai provide cover." The brain bug suddenly looked right at them and Carl writhed in pain as the mental attack came through. "What we waiting for? An invitation?" Zim commanded. They started scaling down while Rico aimed for the brain and T'Phai aimed for the immediate threats. Soon, brain was distracted by Rico's assaults enough to let his mental fight with Carl go and concentrating on stopping the assaults instead. Carl picked up his morita and started shooting.

T'Phai made sure that bullets rained on the bugs and efficiently covered Zim, Doc and Brutto who were spraying the troopers liquid to dissolve the webs. Brutto occasionally yelled "Hey skinny, watch where you're aiming that thing." Doc would be talking to trooper if they were alright. Zim would just be his efficient self. Every now and then, they themselves would have to shoot the bugs that T'Phai had missed. The Skinny would call on Rico for help every now and again. After a few short minutes, the troopers were able to move, deploy their lines and use their jump drives to boost them out of the ground. Out came the moritas which they started shooting at once. Lt. Velasco was back to his old habit of ordering his troops-- this time to evacuate the scene as fast as possible through another opening in the wall and not where the Roughnecks were. It didn't matter much to the Roughnecks where Velasco went anyway as long as Sierra had been rescued and was told where to meet.

Carl Jenkins and Rico however, had a full plate with the brain bug. Carl would be battling it with his mind, sometimes mumbling "No you will not", "I don't think so" while Rico would try to shoot it down. However, often, the bullets would stop midway and drop-- a show of power from the brain bug. Zim had scarcely enabled his jump drive when he threw his shock stick to the brain bug like a javalin. As luck would have it, his aim was perfect and being distracted by Rico and muddled by Carl, the shock stick electricuted the brain bug. However mild the electricution was, the brain bug no longer had it's hold on matters and Rico's bullets pierced through the bug killing it. The Roughnecks cheered as the bugs underneath them lost their organization for one moment giving them the opportunity to escape.

--

Higgins took another step back as the waves of bugs went at them. He was amazed how they were still able to keep their line even if they were slowly being pushed back. What amazed him even more is the mood of his three companions. They were talking like they were having lunch on a sunny day and not battling for their lives. Gossard had stayed a bit more preoccupied with the marauder than to join in as a regular in the other three's random discussion. Higgins only took notice of their conversation when he heard his name being mentioned.

"Take Higgins for example, it's pretty cool how he's a reporter and a trooper at the same time" Andy said while shooting another bug down. "That guy who said that about artists is a real jerk."

John nodded in agreement. "I know. That's what I answered him."

"What? Are you guys talking about me?" Higgins asked although he was a bit more pre- occupied.

"In passing. But we all pretty much think what you do is absolutely great." Bryan replied aiming for a hopper. "You're a reporter who was assigned to the frontlines and you took the job. You learned how to be a trooper and here you are. You're both! Not a lot of people in the world would've done the same. They would've opted some yawn worthy story somewhere safe and boring." Bryan pulled his trigger with a grin. "Fantastic!"

"So you should have more confidence in yourself. Look a little less lost. I mean, a good part of what makes a great shot is confidence that you won't miss. You can ask Andy if you don't believe me, FedNet." John added. He paused for one second. "I meant Paperboy. Gods, who came up with Paperboy anyway?"

Higgins stole a quick glance at the twins fighting it off with bugs. "Thanks. Not a lot of people see it that way." He replied getting back at the bugs that don't seem to want to go away.

Andy shrugged. "It's not really your fault. Lots of troopers look at brawns not brains. So keep your eyes open when you pull the trigger and pretend that your using a camera instead of a gun, you'll kill more bugs. More bugs equals more macho points apparently which is another thing I need explained. How exactly does that work out? The fact that you kill more bugs can't mean you have more testosterone."

Suddenly they heard a loud crash right beside the cliff wall. The three couldn't help but giggle and laugh at the turtle-ed marauder. Andy, who was the nearest quickly moved in front of the fallen marauder to make sure the bugs don't over run it just yet.

"You alright in there, Goss?" Bryan yelled still laughing lightly. "You have to get out of the cage. Return to being a wild man-- I mean, person-- wild person like the rest of us. Andy's got you covered if you don't see her up there." The front cage of the marauder swung open and Gossard immediately jumped out and brought out his own weapon.

Gossard grinned. "She's kind of hard to miss." He answered taking aim.

The twins started whistling and howling. "Good line, good line." Bryan said.

"I mean, look at how much dead bugs fall in front of her. That's got to count for macho points." Gossard continued.

"Stole some testosterone shots from a medic." Andy joked and shook her head as she stepped past the marauder. The twins groaned in disapproval.

"Don't bait us like that. I was just starting to think you'd make a good couple." John replied."Well, men still out number women in the MI. There's hope for her yet."

"With friends like you who needs to hire a pimp?" Andy shot back.

Higgins paled as a familiar empty whirl and beeping came out of his weapon in each setting he tried. They were still slowly back pedaling and holding their line from the bug horde. "Guys!" He called out. "I'm out!!"

Gossard tossed a clip to Higgins who quickly replaced his empty one. "I think we need a quick ammo count right now." He suggested. "I just gave my spare clip to Hig, 3 rockets and 2 plasma."

"I'm on my last. I'm out of rockets, laser and plasma too." John said slowly. "Bryan?"

"Same as you." Bryan answered. "Princess?"

Andy rolled backwards and killed a bug while lying on her back. "I've got a spare clip still and 2 plasmas." She shot one plasma charge the the swarm flying her way. "Make that one."

"This is not good." Higgins breathed out and squeezed the trigger.

Bryan's weapon whirled and beeped empty. Almost automatically, Andy threw him her spare clip. A few moments later, John's was empty. He threw the weapon away and brandished a handgun which was only useful for a few seconds before he completely ran out of fire power. He took a steps back behind the line. Higgins followed soon after. The three remaining spread themselves out to cover the other two behind them. "Aren't they cutting it kind of close?" Higgins said as they took another step back.

Gossard threw his morita to the ground as he used his last charges. Soon his hand gun followed. "How are you still not out Andy?" He asked remembering that she had already used part of ammunition when he left the marauder.

"I actually aim-- use less bullets." She answered quietly as the pressure started to weigh on her and Bryan. "Bryan, how much do you have?" She asked in the same tone.

Bryan took a quick glance at the gauge. "Half a clip." He answered. He looked at her curiously as she started mumbling to herself and looking around.

"Gotta get comfy." She said taking off her helmet and throwing it away. She checked her own ammo status. "Barely enough." She sighed.

"What are you doing?!" Higgins yelled.

"Guys, you should start going up the wall." She finally said. "You too Bryan. You'll need whatever's in there just in case."

Bryan shook his head defiantly. "I'm not leaving you here with these creatures." He answered forcefully.

Andy gave him a mischevous smile. "That's all nice and noble but I'll be out of range and bullets soon if you people don't go now."

--

Doc sighed in relief when he saw figures of troopers landing on top of the cliff safely with the help of jump jets. Smart people were able to escape the bug activity below. But their group, along with Sierra, was still out of range for the enemy to notice them in dark or for troopers to launch an offensive. The glow of a fleet plane grew bigger and more comforting when he looked up the starry sky. All of a sudden, there was an explosion in the ravine. Both Sierra and Alpha squads hit the ground by instinct as it quaked beneath. The ravine burst in moments of orange fire and blue plasma. Then came the roar of a rock slide smothering most of the blue remnants of plasma. Dust filled the air in an instant.

Two troopers were already standing up looking over the ravine not waiting for the dust to settle. "She jumped off a dead bug and bloody shot the marauder! That idiot!" Doc heard one of them exclaim. A cold chill ran down his spine as the fleet plane landed and evacuations were quickly on their way. He watched as Higgins, Gossard and the twins ran towards them.

"What happened?" He asked just as they reached him. Higgins fell to the ground trying to catch his breath. Gossard went straight to the plane.

The twins didn't answer. "Give us your morita and launcher." Bryan demanded with the urgent tone. Doc slowly passed what they wanted to them. They quickly stowed it and started heading back to the ravine while checking the charges they had. The Roughnecks looked at each other with confusion and stopped what they were doing.

"McKenzies! Get in the plane now! We're going." Lt. Velasco yelled in vain as the twins continued on.

Doc gave Higgins and Gossard, who just came out of the plane with a morita, confused looks. "What happened?" He asked the man who checking the ammunition and the one who's on the ground being helped up by T'Phai.

Zim stepped in front of Gossard before he could follow the twins down. "Explain." He commanded with a low tone.

"It's Andy." Higgins replied still catching his breath. "She's still down there."

"Damned girl blew up the marauder." Gossard answered.

Brutto moved forward in shock. "She complains that we're trying to blow her up and she blows herself up?" He met Rico's eyes. "That nerd is unbelievable."

"Carl, is she alive?" Rico asked.

Carl shrugged after a few seconds. "Too much going on but I'm pretty sure she is."

Rico tossed his gun to Doc who caught it automatically. "Goss, Doc bring her back." The two troopers started heading of to the direction the twins disappeared to a few minutes before. Rico turned around just in time to see Lt. Velasco deboard the plane. "Oh, here we go." Rico muttered under his breath.

"Lt. Rico, what's the hold up? We should've lifted off two minutes ago!" Lt. Velasco said angrily.

Rico eyed the older lieutenant with indifference. "Private Anderson is still missing sir. I want her found." He answered in a much calmer tone than his mood warranted.

Lt. Velasco leaned forward to stress his words. "Private Anderson is liability to the safe evacuation of both our squads. Leave her. Order your men back." He threatened.

"The Roughnecks never leave a man behind." Rico said stressing each word.

"Damn right!" Brutto cheered from the side and was quickly silenced by a look from T'Phai and Zim.

"Quiet Ape." Zim warned.

"Private Anderson is gone!" Velasco complained. "Let's go!"

Rico started walking forward forcing Velasco back. "If you think for one second, you're going to leave with both squads incomplete you've got another thing coming. Dizzy is inside a medic tank because of you. If you didn't get caught by the bugs, we wouldn't have this problem of looking for Anderson under a pile of rubble. So just sit down and shut up before I personally take you out." He replied to a shocked Lt. Velasco. He turned around and came down the plank where the squad cheered him on.

"Way to go Rico." Carl gave him a pat on the shoulder before glancing back watching Zim stare down at the stormy Velasco taking a seat.

--

"So she's ok?" Dizzy Flores asked as Rico sat down on her bed with a tray of food. It has been two days since the events and both Sierra and Alpha were given 3 days off as a reward for destroying the bug stronghold-- just enough time to recuperate from injuries.

Rico nodded and laughed. "According to Brutto, she woke up looking for the twins. She got a lot of flack for that-- I mean, you'd think she'd look for her actual squad first. Then the twins came in with the other Sierra trooper, Lee, and they started scolding her for the stunt. Then Gossard said they started planning revenge against Velasco or something. You know, I'm starting to think this squad attracts only the crazy girls in the whole MI." Dizzy gave him a wry smile before whacking him with a pillow. "Ow! How do you get the energy to hit me when you've been sedated for two days?"

The red head grinned waving his question off. "What I want to know is what happens to the twins? Bobby told me you recommended them to fill up spots in Zulu?"

"Oh. Yeah, about that." Rico smiled. "That's true and SICON actually approved it. After their R&R the McKenzies and Lee will be joining their friend Sean Lavigne in Zulu. Someone had to keep people like that away from that creep Velasco. I think Andy's jealous."

Dizzy nodded and smiled. "I can't believe your starting to act like an L.T. You did good Rico." She commended giving the boy a fake punch on the shoulder.

Rico gave her a lazy smile. "You really think so?"

Zim watched the two start throwing pillows and peas at each other from the small window of the medical room. He smiled before moving on to check if his other trooper was taking it easy outside of medic center. On his way, he saw Lt. Velasco inside the medical room with, apparently, a bad case of allergies. He walked along the hall to the mess hall where he saw most of the squad laughing with the twins and Lee. He moved on to rest in their squad room when bumped into a harassed looking Carl Jenkins.

"Jenkins! What's the matter?" He asked in his usual formal fashion.

"Sgt. Zim... I have to find Rico." He said leaning against the wall. "I need to contact... The Queen, sergeant, the queen says she's almost done."


	4. Chapter 4

Little note: If you've noticed, I have trouble keeping track of bugs. Thus, the ones that fly will be called (tada!) flyers (or did i spell it as Fliers...) 

STC 4: Pluto

Looking at the stars used to be comforting for most people-- until a lot of random bright blue ones pop out altogether against the black sky. Those aren't stars. They're transport bugs coming to life in a flip of switch. SICON tracked down the bright lights to the Kuiper Belt-- the ring of space debris in the area where Pluto resides.

Why nobody checked the surrounding area around Pluto for bugs after the Pluto campaign is still a mystery. Intel had said there were no bug activities recorded besides from Pluto and SICON had answered with a vague "Bugs aren't native to Pluto. We kill the source." The blame game went on without much explanation or apology to the civilian population. After SICON HQ fell in Hawaii and the Decoy Queen operation, the public was sympathetic enough to understand that the military was doing its best in safeguarding Earth as the war continued. But now our system is basically surrounded and this new development left everyone, including troopers, at a loss with three nagging questions. Had the bugs been there waiting all along? Can Intel, and by extension SICON, still be trusted? Sky Marshal Sanchez had been unwavering in his confidence that the humans would win the war. SICON will prevail. But fear and restlessness fueled the last question--

What do we do now?

Robert Higgins:: The Roughnecks

It was the start of the end and everyone knew it. 6 starships were deployed to try to gain control of the Kuiper region hoping this would weaken the possible bug offensive. The rest of the starships would remain within the orbit of Jupiter ready to meet whatever attack that could threaten Earth in case the transports went inward. A large part of the infantry stayed behind on Earth to clean up the bugs that were already there. The rest were manning the starships together with fleet.

With transport bugs all around the region they were in, it was almost a miracle that the Valley Forge was able to sanitize their area with little resistance. Two others weren't so lucky. The Roger Young for example, had to go back to Earth half way through Saturn because of the damage caused by enemy fire. Fleet wasn't happy about their casualties. Of the pilots that have gone with the six starships, a little more than a quarter was lost in battle. However, SICON felt encouraged whenever a piece of space returned under human control. The Valley Forge, like three other Starships that had secured their area were ordered to install bases to detect bug activity even before it reaches the system. Commander Marlowe decided to install the first base in the quadrant's largest mass-- Pluto.

However, Pluto was never cleaned. The largest arieal offensive since Operation Pest Control was launched in the grey dwarf planet. The plan was to make the surface as clean as possible. MI troopers would then drop to the surface and sanitize every bug tunnel, base and hideout together with routine fleet sector-ed bombardments. Unlike other operations, fleet didn't bomb by sector initially-- they let loose so that every surface of the sphere would glow orange. Pluto turned into a great big ball of fire that Jerry Lee Lewis could be proud of. The initial bombardment scheme lasted for three days with Pluto turning orange almost twice a day.

Fleet again received heavy casualties. Some were taken down by bugs. Some were just far too new to the war that they were caught and engulfed in the same flames the caused. The grim reality was that the lost pilots had no chance of rescue. If they managed to survive the flames and the bugs when they went down, they surely wouldn't survive the next.

After the third day, the starships' multiple scans finally revealed that nothing on the surface was moving. The bugs, if any, had dug in too far for fleet to reach. Infantry was to be deployed with fleet organizing bombing runs regularly or if necessary, by urgency. Dizzy looked down on the grey dwarf planet remembering her first drop. The squad had changed much since then. Rico, Carl and herself were just greenies. Higgins could hardly be called a trooper. Lt. Razak kept everything in check while Sgt. Brutto taunted anyone and everyone he laid his eyes on. But along the way, Sgt Brutto was paralyzed, Carl went missing just to return a little more powerful, T'Phai joined the group, Lt. Razak had died, Rico was promoted and Zim, Max Brutto and Ashley joined the fray. Doc, Gossard and Higgins were the only ones who haven't really changed much-- still the stoic medic, still semi sarcastic corporal, and still the trooper with a camera to film everything. She watched as Zim was almost like a calm statue sitting on his seat. To his right was the equally calm T'Phai and to the left was Higgins filming the two troopers in another useless argument about Pluto's planet status with Andy and Doc sitting across them occasionally laughing and adding to the conversation themselves.

"We definitely weren't like that the first time we were here. Gossard wasn't that friendly." Carl said watching the argument move on.

Dizzy nodded."We need some popcorn." She said.

The door slid open and Rico came in the hull unnoticed as everyone had they're eyes, or ears in Zim's case, on the debate.

"When was the last time you picked up an astronomy book? The 1900's?" Gossard said.

"It's common knowledge. I don't need a book because everyone knows I'm right." Brutto answered smugly. "You've been blown up so many times that brain damage is normal. Or maybe you're not as smart as they think you are. Note-- I used they." The comment elicited a few "ooooooh"'s from the audience.

Andy nudged Doc. "It's going to get ugly." She laughed.

"That's like saying diet soda makes you gay. Just because people say it often doesn't make it a fact." Gossard countered.

"Diet soda doesn't make you gay. What's that have to do with the planet?" Brutto said.

The older trooper looked up at the hull ceiling in disbelief. "What's the matter Goss, praying for your brain to start functioning?" Brutto taunted.

"At least I have one. Can't say the same for you though." He shot back. Andy and Doc started laughing again much to Brutto's dismay.

"Apparently all that football had knocked all sense out of you." He continued.

Rico leaned slightly to Carl and Dizzy while watching the development. "Update. Who's winning?" He whispered to them.

"Hard to tell." Dizzy answered. "But the banter is getting much better."

"And as usual, away from the topic." Carl added. He faced the laughing Rico. "We don't need to stop them yet do we?" He asked.

Rico gave him a defeated smile and cleared his throat to get the attention of the squad. "Sorry to interrupt." He said loudly just for good measure. The verbal combatants and their audience stopped in mid conversation and stared at the lieutenant.

Doc sank on his chair. "Aw and I wanted to see if Brutto gets hit." Brutto gave him a sarcastic stare and Andy just laughed.

"If we're not careful, we will get hit." Rico answered. "We are to secure sector which, for the 6 of us who were here the last time, was also bug city. Don't worry. There are no more eggs or bugs on the surface-- or at least that's what Intel says. But the scans say there are massive caverns and tunnels underground where the bugs may be hiding. We will be going through the old hopefully abandoned tunnels which have been partially mapped out for us to clean them out manually."

"Should be piece of cake." Dizzy Flores grinned.

"Hopefully clean surface, hopefully empty tunnels...A lot banking on hope in this plan." Higgins commented. Rico raised his eyebrow at him.

"That being said, Gossard wants to make a speech before we drop." He continued before taking his seat beside Carl.

"For those of you who haven't been to Pluto," he said eying the two younger troopers and the skinny, " suit integrity is very important. You can't breath the air and the temperature is way beyond negative that even if you can breathe methane, you'd also be frozen from the inside out. Gravity won't be an issue as long as your power suit is fine." He paused. "Oh, and Andy, quick trivia question?" He called out.

"Yeah?" The girl answered.

"When was Pluto revoked of its planetary status?" Gossard asked much to Brutto's horror. Andy had gained a reputation short of being a know it all. If she wasn't in VR practicing her shots, she's reading whatever was lying around or in her computer which explained why Brutto hadn't stopped calling her a nerd since she joined the Roughnecks. The squad was even shocked when she won a game of trivia with person from another squad who suggested the game-- all for the last piece of steak in the mess hall. The tie breaking question-- What is the largest mammal? Her opponent had said "African Elephant" with much confidence until the 'official' declared it wrong. "Blue Whale." Andy said while grabbing the last slice of meat without waiting for the 'official'.

"2006." She answered without hesitation. Gossard gave Brutto a victorious grin before taking his seat.

"WHAT?!" Brutto exclaimed. The squad tried to hold back their laughter in knowing the spit fire attitude of the younger trooper. "You're such a geek!" He told the girl across him.

"Well if you actually read books, you wouldn't have this problem. Assuming that you do know how to read." She shot back.

Suddenly, the small screen by the door lit up cutting off Brutto's response. Lt. Ibanez's serious expression dampened the hull's mood. "We're within orbit. Rico, you drop in five. Good luck Roughnecks." She said before the screen flickered off once more.  
Rico stood up and the squad followed. They checked their equipment before heading to their respective drop suits. The red light started flashing and drop suit sequence was initiated. Right before they were ejected from the vessel, Rico called out to his troopers with a familiar phrase. "Live forever Roughnecks."  
The troopers replied in kind. "Ho!"  
--  
Rico's eyes widened as he landed hard and rolling on the surface. They had barely entered the atmosphere when a swarm of hoppers attacked them in mid air. So much for a clean landing. Automatically the troopers started shooting but the marauders couldn't compromise shooting another trooper and just tried to finish the drop safely. He saw his squad landing just as hard he had hoping that they were still fine. Doc had abandoned his marauder before it exploded from the impact. The troopers acted almost automatically after finding their footing in the grey landscape of Pluto. Gun fire and warning calls filled the air as the troopers battled as best they can with the bugs. He looked around his surroundings for anything that could offer shelter or cover. Out of the corner of his eye, he found what he was looking for-- the tunnels they came out from the first time the ventured in this area. "Troopers! With me!" He called out as he headed for a cliff wall. Then he heard a familiar voice come through the communications.

"Roughnecks take cover!" Lt. Ibanez said as she flew overhead firing a few missiles to the airborne threat and a few bombs in between the crawling arachnid horde. The ship shot up almost vertical as she tried to lose the bugs that were following her by going to relative safety of space. When she had lost the bugs, she turned her ship back planning to make another run but her ship's dashboard started blinking red. One of her thrusters was malfunctioning probably because of the bug that latched on it earlier. "Damn it!" She cursed as she took one last look at the dwarf planet before heading back to the Valley Forge.  
--  
"No movement." Gossard announced inside the only marauder left.

Carl Jenkins sighed in relief as he slumped down against the tunnel wall. They barely got there in time before Lt. Ibanez let loose her salvo. Around him the troopers were relatively speechless coping in their own way. He watched Sgt. Zim approach the marauder.

"Map these tunnels." He ordered simply. Gossard replied almost sounding thankful that he didn't have to think about what just happened.

"Sir, yes sir."

Carl watched Rico slump down beside him looking down at the ground. T'Phai approached Rico cautiously. He placed a hand on his lieutenant's shoulder. "We were lucky that you remembered where this is." He said trying to make the young officer feel better.

"T'Phai is right." Carl said. "I didn't remember this place either."

Dizzy approached the threesome followed by Doc. "I don't want to remember this place ever." She said tapping her head with a finger referring to her previous claustrophobia incident.

Rico shook his head furiously. "It was like they knew the plan and when to strike. We have to assume they know our POA." He punched the ground in frustration and everyone remained silent. "They're playing us." He continued ranting.

"Then i suggest we play too." Zim said from beside the marauder.

Higgins faced the boy beside him checking his weapons. "I'm not going to like this am I?" He asked.

The boy gave him a wry smile. "Do you ever?" Brutto replied.

"Good point." The reporter said.

"We're screwing Intel over? It's going to be a wild night." Dizzy said grinning.

"Here you go sarge." Gossard passed a handheld screen of the tunnels. "Can't be sure which are abandoned but that's the maze." Zim took one look at the sector's underground system and smiled. All the tunnels were interconnected meeting at a cavern or just joining together and splitting apart. The sergeant's smile wasn't lost to the troopers especially since the sergeant always had a stern look on his face.

"Sgt Zim, do you have a game in mind?" Rico asked.

--

Higgins couldn't believe the conversation he was hearing. Here they were split into three groups crawling through hopefully abandoned bug tunnels hoping they won't run into bugs while planting charges along the way, and instead of talking about the up side of trooper life, Gossard had decided to inform everyone that something was very odd about the tunnels. It was like the plan of surrounding the bugs in the sector by using their own old tunnels to get in and out and blow them sky high wasn't enough to satisfy Mcgyver's definition of difficulty. While Rico had occasionally joined the conversation, Higgins wasn't sure if the lieutenant could actually follow the chemistry ping pong Gossard and Andy were playing. He knew he couldn't. Brutto had always said Andy was a know it all with a temper. But Gossard's, and sometimes Doc's, mumbo jumbo often sounded like another language to all of them. The conversation started with a simple question that Gossard had asked. "How are well do you guys know Pluto and chemistry?" He had answered him with a "not very good." Rico had replied with "I've been here before-- if that helps." Andy had just shrugged and said "Depends on what you have." Then came a dizzying set of chemistry terms like 'oxydizing agent', 'reduction' and 'titration' followed by a worrying line from Andy-- "Are you sure that's what it's reading? I've never heard those things in any place except in a well funded chem lab."

"Hig," Gossard called out breaking his reverie. "Last one here." He said and went back to Andy and Rico. "So you don't know what strontium nitrate is for?" Higgins placed his camera down and set the explosive on the wall.

Rico shook his head. "We're troopers not chemists. Let's just look for the exit and call in. The other two are already done."

"It sounds familiar. Strontium is Sr right?" Andy tapped on her chin then shrugged. "I'll tell you when I remember-- if i remember." She corrected herself before following Rico's lead.

Higgins looked at Gossard wryly. "Someone can actually understand your language. No talk box required." He watched as the two troopers in front stopped and took a step back.

"We have company." Rico said firing his weapon right after Andy. Automatically, the two behind started firing theirs. After a few minutes of gunfire, the mix of cliff mites, warriors and spiders had started to push them back. the cliff mites and spiders especially started going through the lines by crawling the ceiling and the walls. The troopers knew that going forward was no longer an option. Going backwards wouldn't be wise either-- the bugs or a misfire might set off the bombs they had planted which would ruin the whole operation.

"I don't think we can stay here." Higgins said as he pivoted to kill the small spider on his right wall just as it leapt for him.

Rico nodded. "Right. Gossard, what's down below?"

"Bug tunnel with maybe bugs." He answered.

"Then there's no way out but up. Goss, cave in please?" He asked politely moving behind the marauder.

Higgins and Andy shared a shocked expression as they retreated to Rico's line. "Cave in?!" Higgins exclaimed

Gossard aimed a missile upward to the tunnel ceiling a few feet away. "Take cover!" He warned.

"Where?" Andy asked sarcastically as the missiles hit the ceiling and came crashing down.  
--  
Dizzy looked at sector impatiently. She did not like the fact that they were hiding on an uneven path in the mountainous landscape. She did not like that fact that nothing was happening and they were just waiting until their plan hopefully unfolds. She'd rather be shooting bugs down. Dizzy Flores was bored. She heard a snap above and aimed her weapon thinking it was a bug. She sighed and lowered her morita as Doc, Brutto and T'Phai joined their little hideout.

"They're here. You know, when I thought we were going on a bug hunt, I meant an actual bug hunt not an underground wild fire." She sat down and leaned on a boulder beside Carl.

"Sorry we're late," Doc called out while scaling down the wall. "We met some bugs along the way. They didn't like us much because we're prettier."

Carl smirked before returning to his sulking friend. "We took a page out of fleet's play book Diz. It's not a crime. Besides, it was Zim's idea." He said a bit softer. "And how do you argue with Zim? He's not exactly Rico." He pointed out as he returned to watching the sector their supposed to be securing below.

Brutto landed effortlessly just in time to hear the last statement. He looked around as T'Phai and Doc landed behind him. "Where IS Rico?"

"Has he not yet come back?" T'Phai asked.

Carl shook his head at the skinny. "Hasn't called in yet."

"MIA." Zim turned around from watching the horizon. He shook his head. "He's late." He stated.

Dizzy shrugged as he looked at the sergeant. "Oh come on, sarge. They're probably on their way back."

"Yeah, but the flares and lasers we set up to lure the bugs in are going to go off soon. Not to mention they have the trigger." Doc reminded the already worried girl.

Dizzy crossed her arms and looked at the medic defiantly. "They're coming back." She said matter- of- factly.

T'Phai calmly raised his weapon alerting the troopers. "Fliers." He said as he started firing. The troopers took to their own weapons and started shooting.

In the distance, the glare of red erupted out of the darkness in various spots. Like moths to candlelight, most of the bugs doubled attracted by the light show. The warriors that had started climbing beneath them retreated thinking that their base was under attack. The rest that had remained to attack the troopers were shot down one by one. They could see the swarms of bugs gathering around various glows of red. The lasers' beams one by one had started blinking-- a sure sign that the charges were almost depleted. Without the lasers, the fliers would scatter again. The glow from the flares were dying as well.

"Come on Rico." Carl said under his breath.  
--

Gossard climbed out of his broken marauder and saw three troopers getting debris off them. One advantage of being inside a marauder is the cage's eject button. Instead of him digging his way out, he had the cage's hatch spring open flinging off the debris. Thus, he didn't have a problem. He grinned as he helped Higgins on his feet seeing as Rico and Andy were already on theirs a bit further on. Higgins checked his camera by force of habit. The dust had started to settle on the troopers.

"Time?" Rico asked weakly. The first laser and flare show shown through the area making him sigh. "Nevermind." He said. That was a sign they had no time-- in fact they were late for rendezvous. They haven't radioed in either. Suddenly, the girl beside him broke into a run yelling "Bug!" Rico saw a hopper shoot stingers in Gossard's direction. She tackled a very surprised Gossard and taking some of the corrosive spikes on her back. He immediately shot the bug down as Higgins stood frozen in shock a few feet from the pair on the ground.

"Hig! Shoot!" He ordered as a few more bugs flew their way instead of the light show. The reporter became mobile again and aimed upward. Out of the corner of Rico's eye he saw Gossard free himself off Andy who collapsed on the ground. A few seconds later, the fliers had given more priority to the red glows than the four troopers and simply flew over them. The two troopers stopped firing and approached the injured girl. Higgins kept watch just in case a bug noticed the trick.

"I don't understand." They hear Andy say weakly as Gossard pulled out the four spikes. She winced as she felt the burning sensation of the acid all over her back.

"What don't you understand?" Rico asked as he sprayed something that could at least help neutralize the acid even a little.

"Why bugs always go for Goss first." She answered. Rico broke into a grin as Gossard started to make sure that the suit was still operational by filling the holes with expanding foam from another spray can.

The person in question shrugged. "Bugs love me." Gossard answered. He looked at Rico and shook his head. "The acid went all the way through before we could neutralize. The power suits as sealed as we can hope but she needs Doc."

"Rico, the lights." Higgins reminded pointing at the sputtering lights on the horizon.

Rico looked back and forth between the pale girl trying to fight the pain and the lights. He knew this could be their only chance in securing the sector, but they weren't in the safety zone yet and he had an seriously injured trooper they can't leave behind. To his surprise, Andy slowly lifted herself up, wobbled slightly before finding her footing. "Adrenaline's not going to last long." She gave him a nod.

"Goss 30 seconds head start then lets blow this place up." He grinned breaking into a run.

The trooper slid a panel on his glove and returned the smile. "With pleasure."  
--   
The synchronized charges inside the abandoned tunnels exploded. Fire erupted and quickly blasted through the abandoned tunnels to spread all the caverns. The explosion spread through out all the underground tunnels in the sector. Some areas couldn't take the pressure and collapsed. The bugs inside screamed until they were burnt to the crisp. Those that had managed to escape to the surface was met by the rage of Lt. Ibanez's bomb raid as she was finally able to extract her revenge on the bugs that had ruined her day earlier. When she was satisfied, she headed to the location the Roughnecks had mentioned in their communications.

Bright purple, red and blue smoke and fire bursts rose from the cracks of the ground. The troopers stared at the sector that just burst into flame start to settle down. They saw a fleet craft land above them and hurriedly scaled the cliff wall and met their pilot. They weren't surprised to see Lt. Ibanez beside the open ramp. After all, Lt. Ibanez was more familiar with the Roughnecks' crazy tendencies than any other fleet pilot on board the Valley Forge.

"You've done something new to the place-- I'm not sure of the colors though." She said as they approached. When nobody replied with a smart quip, she knew there was something wrong. She looked at their unhappy faces and noticed that the squad was considerably smaller than she remembered. "Where's the rest of the squad?" She asked then she looked at Carl and Dizzy. "Actually, where's the L.t.?"

Carl and Dizzy stayed quiet. Sergeant Zim made his way to the front of the the squad. "Missing." He said sternly. "Lt. Ibanez, with your permission I'm requesting an areal search."

Lt. Ibanez nodded. "Agreed. But only for 5 minutes. Marlowe wants another bomb run while SICON doesn't have a problem with our excess use of explosives." The troopers filed inside the plane quietly. Carl watched Dizzy Flores stop before the fleet officer.

"Thanks Carmen." She said unable to meet the other girl's eye.

Carmen Ibanez placed her hand on her shoulder. "It's not the first time any one of you has gone missing." She said pressing the button that raised the ramp. "Rico especially."  
--  
Higgins opened his eyes tentatively. His whole body hurt as he remembered being lifted off his feet by the force of the blasts. He slowly tried to sit up just in case he had broken anything. There didn't seem to be anything exactly wrong with him so he stood up watching two other troopers doing the same. Then he looked over the cliff ledge they had climbed before Gossard hit the button and saw the most peculiar colors rising from the ground. He took his camera and thanked God it was still operational. Who else would have a shot of Pluto with different colors? "Fednet would love this." He smiled to himself as he filmed the view letting his reporter training take over.

"Where's Andy?" He heard Gossard's voice behind him. Higgins spun around remembering the injured girl. He stowed his camera and looked at the still dusty area. Rico, he saw, was doing the same thing. But there was no movement.

Higgins paled. "She was right behind me when we were thrown off." He said still looking for any sign of Private Ashley Anderson.

"Hey." A voice to his right said. He turned and saw the girl collapse against a boulder to a sitting position. "Strontium nitrate." She said randomly. The three boys hurriedly headed to her side. She was paler than they remembered her to be and was obviously trying to keep herself conscious, if not focused. "Makes flares burn red." She pointed at the colourful horizon for a brief moment then fell limp again.

Rico stared at the girl wryly. "That's what you think of after being blown up?"

The tired girl attempted a shrug. "No. Bottles of beer on the wall." She answered. "Valley Forge has alcohol yes?" She looked at Gossard who was looking up at the sky. There was a familiar hum in the air. Two faint blue streams passed over their dusty area.

Rico grinned as he turned on his locater beacon and patched himself through communications. In a few minutes the whole squad was on their way back to the Valley Forge.

Doc immediately gave the injured girl pain killers and made sure she was stable. He had seen this problem before. Unfortunately there was nothing he could do until they reach the Valley Forge. Until then, he would just have to keep her conscious. "So, Andy," He said lowering the safety bar for her, "um.. what did you do before you became a trooper?" He asked.

The girl concentrated on the question before finally answering. "Was a bartender in Statics and in the house band." She answered slowly.

Doc raised his eyebrows in surprise. "A bartender." He repeated. She nodded.

T'Phai leaned forward. "What instrument did you play?" He asked keeping the conversation going.

"Rhythm guitar." She said with a bit more effort. The rest of the squad took this as an opportunity to 'interview' the injured trooper by asking her things they were curious about. Higgins started filming the event. It wasn't often that troopers openly revealed anything about their past. Of course he would as her permission to use it for FedNet later when she's more coherent. But it was better to have things on film than regret not capturing anything at all.

Carl walked over to Rico. He motioned to their angry friend coming at them "Here she comes. You're gonna get it now." He warned.

Dizzy hit Rico's helmet in frustration. "You could've told us you were fine before blowing the place up." She said annoyed. Rico gave her a sheepish grin for an apology. "Next time you do something stupid like that I'll kill you myself." She headed back to her seat visibly ticked off.

"I think the bugs were friendlier." Carl nudged his friend from behind.

The little screen behind them flickered before Rico could reply. "Ri.. Lt. Rico." Ibanez corrected herself at the last minute. "I've just gotten word that General Redwing wants a word with you when we get back."

Rico spun around with his humour gone surprising the troopers in the squad. "Are you serious?" He asked incredelously. "But I don't want to see any one right now." He ranted.

"It's General Redwing."She emphasized the officer's status. "You don't have a choice." The screen flickered off and Rico sighed. He was not liking this Lieutenant post.

"Maybe you can bargain for R&R?" Doc suggested.  
--  
As soon as they docked onto the Valley Forge, the squad filtered out of the ship and into the medic station. By Doc's request, everybody, not only Andy, had to be checked out in the medical ward especially after the disastrous drop and the chemicals Gossard had found in the tunnels. Power suits also needed to be checked for any contamination before hand. The tired troopers were waited their turn in the medic station quietly as more seriously injured troopers had to be looked after first.

Once Rico had the medics' sign of approval, he went straight for mess hall until he remembered about General Redwing. He stopped right in front of the sliding doors and turned around heading to the closest communications room to call Earth. He sighed as he sat down on the seat and waited to be patched through. He didn't have to wait long.

"Lt. Rico." General Redwing appeared on screen. Rico immediately gave her a snappy salute which she returned. " It's nice to see that your squad remained in one piece today." She said.

Rico shrugged. "Barely." He said bitterly. "We're all pretty battered."

"Yes, Lt. Ibanez and the rest of fleet had mentioned what happened during the drop." General Redwing nodded.

Rico stared at the screen as silence took hold of the conversation for a brief moment. "General Redwing," He said tentatively, "I'm sorry, but is there something you wanted?" He asked trying not to be rude. She is a general after all.

"Your right lieutenant. This isn't a social call. I want to commend you for your efforts today. Your squad was one of the few that secured the sector they were given." The general shook her head lightly. "Infantry received heavy casualties in Pluto. I hear you have an injured of your own." Rico was unable to hide his surprise that the general knew about their situation. "Are you willing to answer a question off the record Lt. Rico? It would be confidential of course."

He looked at the general curiously. "Off the record? What's this all about general?" He asked leaning forward on the console.

"SICON. Do you think SICON's Intel is accurate? You can speak as honestly as you want." The general said leaning back on her chair.

"If we followed what and how SICON wanted us to operate today, the whole squad would've been wiped out. Those bugs were staking us out. And this isn't the first time Intel had been iffy." Rico rolled his eyes as his grief about Intel started to be voiced out for the first time. "We might as well be going in blind because that sure is what it feels like. You'd think it'll get better after Hawaii but no, it actually got worse." Rico crossed his arms furiously.

"So you don't trust the intel?" She asked. Rico paused to assess the question. Trust in any level is always a complicated issue.

"Don't get me wrong, I would rather have some intelligence report than none." Rico answered carefully, "But since the fall of SICON HQ in Honolulu, it seems like we've been pushing out luck far too hard and far too often. I'm not even sure if I understand why we're securing Pluto to be honest." Rico shrugged. "By the way general," Rico leaned in the table a bit concerned, "I'm going to remind you that the boys at intel work directly under the command of Sky Marshal Sanchez. You might as well be accusing top brass of not doing his job."

General Redwing nodded. "I understand. I know the risk of what I'm suggesting." The general sighed suddenly looking a bit more tired that she originally seemed. "But something about this Queen business has been bothering me since your squads' first encounter. Jean had been helping me with the legwork but..." She strayed not wanting to rehash the events at San Francisco. Rico stayed silent suddenly wondering where he had but that black band with the old lieutenant's initials. "Orders are orders." The general continued suddenly. "I've informed Commander Marlowe that the squads from the first wave that have come back from Pluto today should be given 24 hours of R&R unless deployment is absolutely necessary. The second wave of troopers shouldn't have as hard a time. Make sure you take some rest Lieutenant."

"Ma'am yes ma'am" Rico answered saluting the General before the screen flickered off. He headed to the mess hall slowly still trying to understand what exactly just transpired in the conversation with Redwing. The door of the mess hall slid open and his thoughts disappeared with the sight of a few waving Roughnecks motioning him to the table. Maybe later he could delve into the oddness of that conversation. But right now, R&R was in session by the General's orders.


	5. Chapter 5

STC 5: Ceres

Rico dumped a whole pile of paper work on his bunk and stared at it. When they were finally given any semblance of a chance of sleep aboard the Valley Forge after 12 straight days of cleaning up in Pluto, he finds paperwork waiting for him. Around him, the troopers' normal raucous filled the room. The effects of a sleep and a full stomach lifted their moods back to normal. Zim was nowhere to be found but that wasn't unusual. Brutto was having a heated argument with Dizzy. Carl Jenkins and Doc was sleeping on his bunk. Gossard had a dreamy look on his face, a screwdriver on one hand, and a toy on another. Higgins was editing his news reel. T'Phai was watching a video message that came from Tophet. Ashley Anderson, donning her glasses, was on her bunk with her laptop propped on a pillow and a small notebook she occasionally wrote on. Rico sat beside his pile of work and let out his frustration. "Nyaaaaaaaaa!" He yelled.

The troopers stopped what they were doing and saw the distraught Rico beside a pile of folders and papers. The sleeping Doc and Carl just tossed in their beds. Dizzy Flores walked over to her friend. "You sound like a bug." She teased grabbing the first folder on the pile. "I'll take this one." She said climbing to her bunk on top of his. Gossard stood up and grabbed the next one. "You could've just asked you know." He said. Brutto, T'Phai, Higgins and Andy took off the pile as well and headed to their bunks to work on whatever's on the folder. Rico smiled when he looked at his considerably smaller pile and started his own work. Occasionally, someone would be saying parts of information out loud for everyone to hear and write down a reply of not only what Rico had said to write, but everyone else as well.

Rico opened his third folder and stared at the A4 envelope inside. It had the words CONFIDENTIAL in big blue handwritten block letters. He shrugged. Half of what they were working on had the word confidential on them albeit SICON usually used red ink instead of blue. SICON also usually used a rubber stamp. He tore the envelope open and looked curiously at the contents. His curiosity increased when he didn't find a return to sender note.They were 6 pictures of what looked like a orange-ish planet with small faint bright blue- white glow in an area. The time stamp at the back had dated 4 photos to the year 2003 and 2004. The one dated 2005 didn't have the glowing area. The last picture was taken a few days previous while they were still in Pluto battling the last of the bugs there-- the bright blue glow was back on the sphere. Rico scratched his head. He tried looking for any text that could explain what he was looking at but found none. Slowly he crawled off his bunk and lifted one of the black and white photos marked 2003 up. "Guys, do you know what exactly this is?" He asked the group thinking one of them had to know. There were 7 of them working after all. He saw Dizzy shake her head and went back to her folder.

"It looks like a planet." T'Phai offered. "But then anything spherical and coloured could be mistaken for a planet." He continued.

Gossard took one look at the photo. "It's not a machine."

"That helps." Brutto said sarcastically. He felt Rico's gaze on him. "Hey, don't ask me. Ask them." He said pointing at Higgins and Andy.

"Hig? Andy?" Rico called out to the two. Higgins looked down from his top bunk and shrugged his answer.

Andy took her reading glasses off, smirked and returned back to her folder. "Old Hubble telescope image of Ceres." She answered absently. "What year was that...2002? 2003? 2004?" She continued putting her glasses back on again and placing her attention on the folder.

"Super nerd strikes again!" Brutto shouted. A pillow hit him on the back of his head. Brutto looked back just to see Doc's upside down face.

Doc took his pillow back. "Shut up, Brutto." He said from the top bunk before going back to sleep.

The wide awake troopers silently laughed as Brutto groaned unable to defend himself because his new opponent was now sleeping. Rico lifted another photo this time marked 2005 as he approached the younger trooper's bunk. "Andy, is this the same place?" He asked. The girl took a quick glance at the photo before returning to the paperwork in front of her.

"Yups. Still Ceres." She answered.

"Hey, what happened to the blue?" Higgins asked from the top bunk.

Andy answered while writing something on the piece of paper. "Mystery." She closed the folder she was working on and handed it to Rico. "There's nothing important on that folder. Just a bunch people complaining that Alpha squad's too..." She bit her lower lip trying to find a word. "Uncontrolled. And that you have to check your temper when talking to the Commander, Fleet, SICON in general. You know-- wording and poker face." She said flipping her laptop open again.

Rico rolled his eyes. "I'm trying to keep people alive and they complain about my language. Great." He said not appreciating the irony.

"Hold on!" Higgins peered at the bottom bunk hanging upside down. "There's no planet in any system named Ceres."

Andy sat down and crossed her legs. "That's because Ceres isn't a planet, Hig, it's like Pluto. It's a dwarf planet, a minor planet... a planetoid." She yawned and stretched her arms.

"And the glow?" Rico asked.

The girl shrugged. "Like I said-- mystery. Astronomists never figured out why it was there when they were observing from the year... 2003 to 2004 and it disappeared the next year." Gossard gave his folder to Rico and listened in the conversation while looking at the pictures. Dizzy peered at the pictures right beside him. "Since it never appeared again, they said it was an unimportant anomaly. Bunch of scientists even said that it might've just been lens flare or dirt on the Hubble or the sun's light refracting at that angle on Ceres' atmosphere which doesn't sit well with some people because they say Ceres doesn't have much of an atmosphere. Who really knows? They scrapped the project to explore Ceres and it was left alone. Outer space was more interesting or something."

"You sound like an encyclopedia." Dizzy smiled curiously. "How do you remember all this stuff?"

The girl shrugged again. "I used to be bored all the time and ended up reading." She chuckled at the memory. "Plus, you should read how these people got so heated about definitions. Scientists calling each other names like- you have an ego as big as a supernova- It got pretty funny."

Rico grabbed the photos from Gossard and held up the last photo. "Still Ceres?"

Andy nodded. "Yeah. Where'd you get this though? None of the 03-04 photos were this clear." She took a closer look. "So the glow's actually that big? Close to half the sphere? Cool."

"That's definitely not a lens flare. I should know." Higgins said.

Rico, Dizzy and Gossard grew noticeably paler as they looked at each other. "What happened to them?" Higgins asked the girl below his bunk.

"I don't know. I just sat here answering questions." She answered. "Maybe we should wake Doc up?" She said looking up at the upside down Higgins.

Gossard shook his head and dropped to one knee so that he was at eye level with the girl. "Andy where's Ceres?" He asked looking very uncharacteristically serious.

She gave them a 'how could you not know' look. "On it's orbit. Around the sun. In the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. You know, I was expecting you guys knew this. You've been traveling in space for a really long time."

"Redwing." Dizzy said facing Rico. The three were ignoring the girl's last comment. "Forget Marlowe. You have to tell Redwing. She'll check it out. She'll know what to do." She said in a panicked voice. Higgins and Andy exchanged wide eyed confused looks. "I'll go with you." Dizzy said. Rico nodded and the two rushed out of the room with pictures on hand.

"Um... Goss." Higgins called out tentatively to the still pale trooper. "What just happened?" He asked.

Gossard looked at the two confused troopers. "That last picture was taken 2 days ago." He watched as the confusion on both the troopers' faces melted into shock similar to his once the realization hit them. The other starships that weren't in the Kuiper system were in Jupiter's orbit. Ceres was a lot closer to Earth than the starships.

"Oh." Andy said in a slightly higher tone. "That's not cool."  
--

General Redwing stared at the two troopers on her screen. The late Jean Razak has always spoke highly about every member of his squad. He had always said he knew to trust their instincts when the situation has become impossible. It was the only way he knew to survive. But to believe what the two are saying now, would mean that the enemy has been waiting and watching their every move for maybe centuries. The bugs would've had more time to plan than SICON had ever imagined making the odds of winning the interstellar war dip even lower for the humans of Earth. "Where did you get those pictures Lt. Rico?" She asked hoping that the younger trooper did not hear her voice shaking.

"It was sent to me anonymously. But that doesn't really matter, the Starships in Jupiter's orbit should..." General Redwing raised her hand effectively cutting of the lieutenant. The two on her screen gave her a confused look. Dizzy Flores crossed her arms. The general knew that the troopers were getting frustrated. They had come to her first thinking she would know how to deal with the situation. Unfortunately, the information they provided left her at a loss as well. Procedure would have to be followed.

"SICON would need to investigate this matter before doing any action." She saw the troopers' fail to hide their defiant expression. She knew the look far to well. Theirs looked far too similar to Razak's.

"But General Redwing, isn't the possibility of there being tons of bugs in Ceres enough to at least recall the Starships? If SICON still has to investigate before calling them back, it would leave Earth practically defenseless if they decide to attack " Dizzy Flores said.

The general nodded. "I know what you're saying Private-- both of you. We don't even know if the pictures are real. If this information is false then we would have worried the Federation for nothing. Off the record, I don't know how much more it can take." She saw the two motioning to protest and gave them a stern look effectively stopping them from doing so. "I will have to confirm your report first. I will keep you posted. Just let me do my job." She said. She gave the two a salute that signaled the end of their conversation. The two could do nothing more but return the gesture although their faces betrayed their disappointment. "Give my regards to Sgt. Zim. Live forever, Roughnecks." She said surprising the two with their old Lieutenant's eternal line before flicking the screen off.

General Redwing stood up. She turned her back at her desk, crossed her arms in worry and looked out the window. Outside, the stars that used to comfort her now gave her chills. The war had immeasurably altered her life. She sighed. She grudgingly went back to her desk. She didn't have time to think about her life-- not when the bugs were there threatening humanity. She pressed her comm button.

"What are your orders General Redwing?" Answered a man in the other line.

"Get me Lt. Walker and Sky Marshal Sanchez." She said.  
--  
Lt. Walker was not happy when the screen was turned on revealing the officers of the two squads he had to work with. It's not that he wasn't informed, it was more that he was wishing it weren't true. Zulu and Alpha weren't the easiest squads to maneuver and control. Both were high on doing things on their own terms often giving little notice to those above them. The last time he headed an op with Lt. Rockford to make sure that the bugs didn't get into the missile silo in Russia, Zulu almost blew him up. He hasn't worked with Alpha since Lt. Razak died in San Francisco-- he's been avoiding it actually. But the reports have been coming in that the Lt. Rico had a temper. A lot had pegged the attitude to the fact he didn't have officer's training and to his much younger age. Lt. Walker never believed those reasons-- Rico was one of Razak's Roughnecks after all.

But the cards have been dealt. Zulu and Alpha used to get along when the Roughnecks were under Razak. It wasn't impossible to think that the current roster wouldn't. After all, the line hadn't changed much. "Lt. Rockford. Lt. Rico" He greeted a bit reluctantly.

"Lt. Walker?!" Rico had reacted before composing himself. "Lt. Walker." He said more formally this time.

"Walker. How are your burns?" Lt. Rockford asked. The Intel officer sighed. It was going to be a long briefing and an even longer operation.  
--

"And?" Carl asked when the squad room door slid open. The troopers inside immediately stood up. They all faced him expecting an answer. After Gossard's revelation and Dizzy and Rico's conversation with General Redwing, they knew that there was no way the general would leave this matter to rest no matter how official she acted. When Commander Marlowe called for Rico, they were sure that it was about the Ceres case. It couldn't be anything else.

"Pack your bags, we're going to the Roger Young." He answered. The troopers looked at him with disbelief. The troopers groaned with disappointment and headed back to whatever they were doing before the lieutenant came in with news.

Doc crossed his arms. "That's a nice of Marlowe to evict us off the Valley Forge." He said.

"Was it something we did?" Brutto asked sarcastically.

"I thought they would be a bit more worried." T'Phai commented. "I believe I am mistaken." He sat down on Andy's bunk with Andy handing him a book from her bag.

Carl approached the grinning Lieutenant suspiciously. "You're not telling us everything are you?"

"Yeah Rico," Dizzy Flores placed her hands on her hips and tapped her foot, "what do you know?" She asked demandingly. The room stayed silent expecting an answer. If the lieutenants two closest friends suspected something was going on with the officer, they usually were right. Who else would know him better?

Rico cleared his throat. "You didn't let me finish." He said loudly catching the curiosity. "We're going to the Roger Young to be redeployed with Zulu squad to Ceres." He grinned. Various cheers came out from the troopers in the room.

"Oh yeah, Zulu squad!" Gossard grabbed his bag with one hand and fist pumped with the other. 

Dizzy grabbed the nearest pillow to hit Rico with. "You big faker!" She said hitting him a few more times before fixing her own belongings.

Higgins looked around at the excited buzz confused. "Why are we so excited to go behind enemy lines again?" He asked the excited girl that just passed him by.

Dizzy Flores turned to the reporter. "It's a bug hunt party, Higgins!" She answered in a cheery tone.

"Yeah, but not everyone has a death wish." Higgins replied, grudgingly fixing his own belongings.  
--

With the anonymous tip General Redwing had given them, Intel inferred that the glow from Ceres were either from a group of plasma bugs or transports and that the planetoid was simply crawling. But they couldn't be sure and they couldn't make sure. If fleet flew by to check out the dwarf planet, the ships would either be shot by the plasma bugs or the bugs would prompt their attack on Earth by loading on the transport bugs. Sky Marshal Sanchez personally decided that only way to assess and deal with the situation was to plan a covert infantry operation involving two squads with high levels of experience and success with these operations-- Zulu and Alpha.

Lt. Walker's plan sounded simple. The Roger Young would be standing by in Mars' orbit; close enough to Ceres but far enough to seem non-threatening. On board were a dozen level- 4 psychics that would try to 'hide' the troopers at Ceres from the bugs by telepathic suggestion. Walker had named the mission Operation Camouflage for obvious reasons. The troopers should simply be invisible to the bugs. The transport ship bringing the troopers to Ceres would be traveling very close to a comet that passed the system about this time of year-- the Temple Tuttle. The troopers would then drop on Ceres at the same time as the meteor shower that occurs every time the comet passes any mass with a semblance of gravity and atmosphere. Hopefully, the bugs wouldn't know the difference between the burn of a drop suit and a meteorite. Hopefully the bugs wouldn't notice the troopers landing. Once on Ceres, the 'invisible' troopers had a simple instruction-- destroy all transport and/ or plasma bugs. Make sure no bug could get out of Ceres and head to Earth. If the Queen happened to be there, destroy her. Once they have done their jobs, fleet would come in to retrieve them before bombing the dwarf planet.

The meeting between the two squads was formal until Lt. Walker left the room to check on his psychics. "Troopers, transport bay in 10." He had said before hurrying out the briefing room. The serious troopers then broke into an organized mayhem. Both squads new each other fairly well that introductions were hardly needed. Lt. Rico and Lt.Rockford had a small little chat before joining their troopers in their conversations. There was a reunion of sorts with old friends. The McKenzie twins, Lee and Andy introduced to the Roughnecks the last in their motley crew of 5, Sgt. Sean Lavigne in a mock drama much to the amusement of the Roughnecks. But the designation of the more sober blonde blue eyed officer caught his friend's surprise.

"Sergeant?!" Andy exclaimed. "You? Turned Sergeant? Mr. I- can't- handle- cashier- duty? Actually responsible for troopers?? " She turned to the twins still shocked. "Thank god I'm not in Zulu." She said earning her a fake punch on the arm from the sergeant before giving her a hug.

At the command of Lt. Rockford, the meet and greet was over. The two friendly squads separated to get ready knowing that they'd be seeing more of each other in bug land.

Inside the Roughneck's transport ship, Rico couldn't help but be nervous. The plan dictated 100 trust that the psychics on the Roger could keep them hidden. He was always mistrustful of psychics even when his best friend is one. He watched as the other troopers as they went on their own businesses chatting with each other. But he could tell that the troopers were just trying to act as normally as possible like the mission was just another mission. The uncertain energy inside the transport ship channeled through him making him feel worse.

"Looking a little green there buddy." Carl Jenkins said, who unlike everybody else, looked very relaxed on his seat.

"Can you blame me? Walker's plan borders on Vegas odds." Rico said quietly so that the other troopers won't be able to listen in. They didn't need to know that he had a problem with the POA. "Invisible troopers, Carl. Invisible troopers!"

"Do you have a better plan?" He asked.

The Lieutenant shook his head and sighed. Carl gave him a reassuring smile. "Rico, sometimes you just have to have faith. Besides, would you rather drop with anybody else than them?" Rico looked up to watch Zim and T'Phai exchanging a conversation while Doc, Gossard and Andy were doing the same no doubt in a completely different language. Higgins was making a news clip which he always did before a new mission while Dizzy Flores and Max Brutto were engaged in a verbal squabble of their own. Rico took a deep breath and gave his friend a smile of gratitude.

But he had no time to relax. The small screen turned on. Lt. Ibanez' serious face filled the screen. "Roughnecks, guess where we are? We're right beside the comet and if you look out your window, you'll see a glimpse of Ceres."

"There are no windows in here, fleet." Brutto stated obviously not amused.

Carmen Ibanez broke into a grin. "There isn't? Really?" She answered in a sarcastic tone. Brutto smirked appreciating the come back. "Get ready, I've just been informed that you drop in five." She paused. The troopers started to lift their safety bars and head to their drop suits. "Hold on." She said. The troopers paused and watched the screen. Lt. Ibanez suddenly looked paler than she had ever been. "I just want to say," she hesitated for a few seconds before continuing, "I'll be waiting to pick you apes up. Just call in." She finally finished.

"Awwww, I think she likes us now." Doc grinned heading to his suit giving Ibanez a small wave.

"Thanks, fly girl." Dizzy said before disappearing behind Doc.

"I feel so loved." Brutto said in a fake sing song voice.

Lt. Ibanez rolled her eyes. She knew she set herself up for their sarcasm. "This is your stop. Good luck, Roughnecks."   
-- 

Higgins rolled on the Ceres' surface. Looking down from his drop suit nearly gave him a heart attack. They were landing right in the midst of warrior bugs standing guard. He was far too distracted to concentrate on a clean drop. When he stopped rolling, he opened his eyes and immediately paled and froze. His eyes grew wide eye in fear. He was merely inches from a warrior. He felt a hands pull him further from the warrior bug. He looked up at Dizzy signaling him to be quiet. He suddenly remembered Walker's words-- "they'll be blind, not deaf".He stood up slowly realizing that the warriors hadn't noticed their arrival. He watched as the other troopers, Zulu in black and Roughnecks in green, already standing were looking amazed at their situation. He couldn't blame them. This was probably the first time the bugs weren't trying to kill them. He slowly took out his camera to shoot the field of bugs that reached until the horizon.

There was a tap on his shoulder. Instead of Dizzy, he saw Rico holding a hand held screen in one hand and motioning him to move with the other. He saw that they hunt had started. The troopers each had their moritas on the ready just in case they were suddenly made out. Slowly they made their way through the bug field, careful not to bump any of the bugs. Sometimes he had to stop waiting for the bugs to pass. There was no room for error.

Eventually, they reached the wide cliff looking out to a sea of blue and smaller bugs moving in between. Higgins watched the Lieutenants look at each other knowing full well they're thinking the same thing. This was the biggest bug stronghold any trooper had ever seen. He slowly lowered his camera knowing he might just drop it because his hands were trembling. There were transport bugs everywhere with every kind of bug imaginable going in and out of them and going to the a big entrance in the base of the cliff. Suddenly, Higgins regretted having his last meal.  
-- 

General Redwing placed her hands on her head trying to get the room to stop spinning. She wasn't even the one who dropped on Ceres and she was being attacked by her nerves for the troopers there. With a shaking hand she reached out and turned on her communications that connected her to operations base at the Roger Young. Lt. Walker was there in the dark room to greet her.

"General Redwing." He said saluting the officer.

She returned his salute as she regained her composure at least for awhile. "I want an update Lt. Walker." She said sternly. She watched the Lieutanant look at various things that can't be caught by the comm camera.

"Zulu and Alpha squads dropped an hour ago. They have maintained radio silence since then. The pre- cogs have not reported anything wrong in the surface of Ceres. We can only assume that everything is going well." He replied. Lt. Walker took a deep breathe. "It is safe to assume that they have not been spotted and are working on their orders."

The general felt relief go through her body. She knew that in a few minutes her nerves would start once more. But for now, she will take the good news. "Good. Keep me posted Lt. Walker." She said before saluting the lieutenant and turning the comm off. She sighed. She decided that what she needed now was a distraction. She opened the bottom drawer of her desk and pulled out a scrap book her friends had made for her when she made General.

She turned the pages gingerly. There were pictures of her old group with a fond handwritten label at the bottom. 'The Three Musketeers' the label had said under candid pictures of Razak, Zim and herself. There were two messages at the bottom from the two boys. "No power tripping allowed, Miriam" signed Zim. "I knew there was a reason I left the military to teach" signed Razak. She smiled at the sarcasm she still heard from the two short scribbles. After a few more pages of their pictures, there was a newspaper clipping announcing her "rise to power"-- as Zim's handwriting had said scratching off the original headline. "We're in trouble now" Razak's writing continued by the border. She gently smoothed out the news paper page with her hands.

Her eyes caught a small faded picture at the bottom right of the page. It was a picture of the Sky Marshal. She shook her head telling herself that she must be seeing things. She's been a general for many years and she's seen her own features age in pictures taken. But Sky Marshal Sanchez hasn't seemed to have aged from this picture. She read the overlooked article curious to know why he was in the news. The general stopped midway to begin again. She reached the end of the article the second time around and looked around her empty office until she found what she needed on her bookshelf-- a book about the history of SICON's Sky Marshals.

She quickly skipped the chapters about the past officers and directly went to Sanchez's write-up. She scanned the pages until she saw what she was looking for. "...was thought to be on board the Starship Trojan, the first starship to venture out of the Local Group... Trojan crashed in a unknown planet now called Aramis IV... cause of crash still unknown but believed to be a miscalculation on planet's gravity interaction and its satellites. Records show that Sky Marshal Sanchez sent out S.O.S message right before the crash informing Earth of their coordinates but SICON maintains that he was not on board the Trojan. Two days later, the Sky Marshal was found in a fighter plane crash in the middle of a field in Dakota, United States of America confirming that he was indeed not part of the doomed crew. No remains of the tragic starship remained when the Starship Lincoln went to investigate. They deduced that it had burned within entry of Aramis IV's atmosphere." She read aloud to no one in particular. Her eyes grew wide in shock. "But that's impossible." She said to herself. "I saw him board the Trojan-- he was there. We escorted the Trojan until Eris... No envoy was ever reported to leave the ship... There's not even a plane fast enough to get from Kuiper to Earth in two days... The sky marshal wasn't even part of Fleet. He was an ape that rose to the position... How could he fly a plane? And why was he on a fighter?" She rambled on slowly heading back to her chair. A killer head ache started to form in her head. The events didn't follow logic at all-- but the book was SICON approved. It was mandatory reading in Basics. SICON must have edited everything to be true. Then as if her head cleared for a moment, she suddenly sat up straighter. "Dakota??" She exclaimed standing up at a realization. But she immediately fell back to her seat paler than when she started with the history books. "Oh no." She said reaching out for her comm to the Roger Young.

"Lt. Walker!" She shouted at the screen due her urgency. But the screen showed the formerly dark orderly room with red flashing lights. Lt. Walker was ordering people about not knowing that she had initiated contact.

"Lt. Walker!" She called out louder. Finally, the lieutenant turned to face her. He had an uncharacteristic panicked look. All his pomp seemed to have disappeared since their last talk. The general gripped the sides of her table. She didn't need hear Earl Walker say the words.

"I'm sorry general, I have no time. I'm trying to get the pre-cogs... we're under attack." He yelled back before someone took his attention away from the comm. General Redwing turned off the comm link. She placed both hands on her bowed head and started to pray.  
--

Earl Walker paled as he saw his psychics collapse one by one in the dark room. The flashing red light was not helping the situation. He quickly ran to the ship's intercom system. "Medics! We need medics at the Camo Op room!" He shouted over the noise forgetting protocol. He hurriedly went back to his console. The was thrown off his seat as the ship lurched violently. He pulled himself back to the seat. The was having trouble thinking with all the noise. The Commander had ordered everyone to their battle stations.

The lieutenant finally saw what all the fuss was about when he the screen in front of him showed the scene being recorded by the outside cameras. What seemed like a 4 separate clusters of asteroids with wings quickly heading their way. But they weren't asteroids at all because in the middle of the cluster there were bugs firing plasma. He shook his head realizing what exactly the bugs MO was. The asteroid like ice bugs moved the transport bug in the center until they were called upon that way they wouldn't be noticed. They whole formation would just look like a static asteroid cluster. Then when they were called upon, the transport bug came alive and the ice bugs pretty much acted like guards. He heard the door to the room slide open and turned to see two medics immediately trying to prop the helpless pre- cogs.

"Get them to medic bay." He ordered swiveling his chair back to face the console. The commander would have to deal with the onslaught without his help. With the the psychic's gone, the troopers in Ceres were visible to the bugs. Even with a great talent like Carl Jenkins with them, he doubted if the boy could hide two squads from a planet worth of bugs.

He pressed another button that turned two screens. Two pilots saluted him waiting for their orders. "Lt. Ibanez, Lt. Daniels get your troopers out of Ceres at all costs." He ordered. The two pilots smiled and suddenly, he was thankful that for once the craziest people in the universe were part of the operation.

"Lt. Walker," Carmen Ibanez said while plotting her course, "I thought you'd never ask."  
--

The troopers just started taking aim at the transport bugs below them before the bugs had started screaming. Brutto turned around and immediately started shooting. The warriors they just waded through had seen them. The screams had informed the rest of the minor planet on their infiltration. The troopers beside him had started shooting the nearest bug they see heading towards them. It was useless keeping silent now.

"Hey Jenkins!" He called out to the pale boy with his hand on his head. "I thought your freak buddies have our backs."

Carl broke out of his concentration and shook his head. "Their thoughts are ... too scattered. Panicked." He answered getting his morita ready. "I think the Roger Young is under attack."

Gossard took his missile launcher and aimed for the bugs blackening the sky. "That's great." He said letting loose a good salvo. "So we're at the edge of a cliff surrounded by a rock's worth of bugs and the Roger is being attacked. I like these odds." He continued sarcastically. The troopers had been dodging bug attacks from everywhere. They were never at one place at one time in their narrow strip of cliff. Stopping would mean getting hit by blisters or kamikazes or firefries or any combination of bug salvo.

Lt. Rockford looked at his own troopers. Half of which were silently shooting down bugs and the other half were in some light conversation. It had taken time for him to get used to the chatter. But it didn't matter to him that they were noisy, it only mattered to him that they were killing bugs. He took a short glance behind him to the blue glow below growing brighter and remembered their mission. If the Roger was under attack, they didn't need more bugs ready to fly from this planet going at them. "Twins!" He ordered while taking out a few more warriors. "Make sure those transports don't fly."

"Sir yes sir!" He heard the twins answer in unison.

Rico looked at the girl shooting at the warriors beside him and grinned as an idea started forming in his head. "Doc! Get Carmen down here!" He called out.

"Hate to break it to you Rico, but where is she going to fly?" Doc said pointing his morita upward at the swarms of flying giant insects already coming at them.

"She'll figure it out. We need to get out of here." Rico nudged the girl beside him. "Hey there girlie."

Dizzy Flores looked up for a brief second to meet Rico's gaze. She rolled her eyes amazed at how their 'commanding officer' could be in such a good mood with the suicidal situation. "Rico, are we in the same bug rock?" She asked ducking a firefry's fire before shooting it down.

Rico shrugged. "I thought you'd like to blow up some plasma bugs with T'Phai and help the twins out." He suggested. He watched Dizzy's slight annoyance turn into a giddy expression at the prospect of making bugs explode in sequence.

"C'mon Colonel, we have bugs to blow up." She called out to the skinny.

"I will follow your lead." T'Phai replied changing from a morita to a launcher. In a few seconds, they started picking off the plasma and transport bugs down below. Walls of blue flame erupted killing the other bugs in their vicinity or spreading before causing a small chain reaction. Gun fire and filled the air as the troopers miraculously held their compromising position. There were several close calls urging troopers to tackle or push each other.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Lt. Rockford saw a nozzle a few meters away aimed at his head. He froze before an explosion merely a few feet above him told him he was not the target. Unfortunately, a shower of bug guts landed on him. The lieutenant saw the young trooper smirk before taking her aim to cover Dizzy Flores and T'Phai from the flying bugs headed their way while they take care of the crawling bugs below the cliff. His suspicion was confirmed when his sergeant started lecturing the girl.

"Andy, are you crazy?!" Sgt. Lavigne yelled as he pulled back one of the twins from being fried. "You could've blasted his head off!"

Lee dropped to one knee and spun around shooting the fly that flew above him. "What? What did she do?" He asked.

"She almost shot Rockford shooting a bug!" The sergeant exclaimed.

His jaw dropped when he saw his corporal shrug. "That's it? Sean, how many times do we have to tell you?"

"She's better than you!" The twins said in unison.

Much to the amusement of Lt. Rockford, the alpha trooper pulled his sergeant away the corrosive spikes of Kamikaze. "Hey!" Andy said patting the top of Lavigne's head with her free hand. "Pay attention to the bugs, pet." Lt. Rockford smirked. The characters in Alpha squad always amused him. A roar above them caught everyone's attention. But his light mood was short lived. There was a familiar beeping sound coming from one of his troopers. Another trooper got distracted and was hit by a blister bug.

"Medic!" He yelled catching the attention of the nearest one from Alpha. Doc immediately took his neutralizing spray while other troopers adjusted to gap in the line.

To Rico's dismay, their out flanked status had started to take its toll. After a few minutes from the first empty morita, the bugs launched their corrosive stingers at the crew. Those, like him, who had their flame throwers at hand were spared from the stingers. But most of the troopers were hit. Falling to the ground. Suddenly, Lee, Gossard, Doc and Zulu's medic Linden had their hands full with their casualties.

Within the Roughnecks alone, Dizzy, Andy and T'Phai were hit. Higgins had run out of ammunition. Zim, Brutto, Carl and himself had to try their best to cover the injured until Gossard and Doc were certain. While Dizzy and Andy picked up their weapons again running purely on adrenaline, T'Phai, though stable, had stayed down passing on his weapons to Higgins. "Skinnies don't react the same way as humans," Doc said in passing as he helped Zulu with their injured. Rico's mood darkened as another beeping sound was heard, from who, he couldn't make sure. But he knew that if they didn't get out of the rock in the near future, Zulu and Alpha squads would soon be off the infantry list.

"Make every bullet count!" Lt. Rockford yelled at the still standing troopers although he was having a hard time doing what he just ordered. The edge of a firefry's flame had caught his arm. His suit was compromised but luckily there was still enough expanding foam to temporarily patch it up. That though, didn't mean that the burn didn't hurt.

Sgt. Zim looked up when he heard a roar pass through and various bugs start exploding in the air. "Don't lose focus!" He yelled at the troopers when they started cheering. He stepped back slightly too late. A blister bug had got his leg bringing him down. Doc immediately there to treat him. Zim though, never let go of his morita and kept shooting the bugs that he can shoot at his position. Explosions surrounded them as four fleet fighter planes zigzagged through the airspace in bombing runs. One plane crashed as bugs ripped through its engines and hit a plasma bug which exploded.

"Alpha and Zulu! This is Lt. Ibanez. I'm picking you up!" He heard Lt. Ibanez call out as a retrieval ship appeared in the distance accompanied by one fighter clearing the way.

"That's got to be Anna in the other one." Zim heard one of the pale injured twins had said smirking while trying not to lose his footing just yet.

"Why are all the girls we know crazy?" The other one said trying to get up.

Zim watched the dire situation around him unfold. "Brutto! Down!" He yelled as he aimed for the bug heading right for the boy. Brutto ducked just in time for his shot to miss him and hit the bug instead. "Rico!" He shouted trying to get back up. "We can't get into that retrieval ship like this."

He saw the injured Lieutenant wobble slightly before regaining his balance. "Roughnecks! Firewall! Make it go all the way around." He ordered. In a few seconds they were surrounded by a wall of blue light. The lone fighter pilot weaved her way through the sky clearing the bugs underneath them and above them. Lt. Ibanez steadied the retrieval ship in mid air with the ramp leaning on the cliff.

"Critical first!" Lt. Rico ordered. "Brutto. Doc. Take T'Phai, Higgins and Carl. Sergeant, Diz, Andy and Goss, cover fire!" Lt. Rockford shouted his own similar order for Zulu. The Sergeant and Lee took the twins and Private Andrews in, while Private Collins, Lydon and Carlos provided cover fire. The lone fighter piloted by Lt. Daniels made sure that the bugs stayed away. In a few seconds, she was joined by the 3 fighters that have disappeared.   
--

General Redwing saw the light on her comm link blinking. After a 2 hours worth of sitting behind her desk wanting any sort of news from the Roger, she found herself hesitating to turn on the link. She prepared herself for the worst although she couldn't imagine what she would do if the two veteran squads were lost. She took a deep breath before she flicked the switch.

Lt. Walker and the Commander looked particularly harassed in the bridge as they exchanged salutes. "Gentlemen, what do you have?" She asked hoping her voice was shaking.

The commander went first. "The Roger Young has received substantial damage. We've patched all the breaches as best we could and re- routed power to essentials only. We're enroute to Earth for repairs. With the damages we sustained it'll be impossible to have the Roger fixed anywhere else." The commander sighed. "I'm requesting for fleet escort from Earth if it is possible. If there's another attack, I don't have enough pilots to..."

"You will have your escort, Commander." General Redwing nodded. "We cannot afford to lose a starship." She said bluntly. Her attention shifted to Lt. Walker. She braced herself by clenching the arm rest of her seat until her knuckles turned white. "Lt. Walker?"

The Intel officer took a look at his hand held. "The dozen pre- cogs on board have suffered moderate trauma from a psychic attack from what we can gather, brain bugs. Medics say that recovery might take a few months."

"And the troopers?" She asked sounding a bit demanding. She reprimanded herself silently. She knew that the two officers would understand her concern but as a higher ranked official, being emotional was a quality that was praised too highly.

Lt. Walker took out his hand held. " We got them out of Ceres, General Redwing." He replied. A wave of relief washed over the general although she didn't show it. "They're with the medics now. Although most of the troopers are currently stable, they're also in critical condition in the tanks. Of Zulu, only Sergeant Lavigne, Private Lee and Lt. Rockford are not in critical condition. Of Alpha, only Private Brutto, Lecroix and Corporal Gossard are not in critical condition. It doesn't mean though that they haven't been injured-- they're just not critical. They're a bunch of very lucky troopers to have held out for so long." Lt. Walker said surprising everyone around him including the general. She knew Walker long enough to know that this was as close to a compliment anybody would hear him say-- especially since Zulu and Alpha weren't on top of his list of favorite squads.

"I'll need a full report." She said. "And I will need to the both of you privately when you get back to Earth. Good work today." When the screen turned black, the General Redwing allowed herself to collapse on her chair. All the stress of the day was suddenly lifted off her shoulders. She stared at her white ceiling calming herself. General Redwing closed her eyes and let world fade away.


	6. Chapter 6A

Note: Okay. Maybe I underestimated my own 5 year old notes. This looked shorter in my bullets so there will be a 7th chapter-- or a 6B since this one doesn't have an action sequence.

STC 6: The conspiracy theory

Dizzy Flores opened her eyes and gasped at the beautiful scenery before her. She couldn't think of the place, but she's been here before on the same mountain. The lake was mirroring the yellow sky of sunrise. Beyond the lake were blue snow capped mountains with the sun barely peeking through their tops. A cool breeze passed over the area rustling the trees around her. She sighed. It's been awhile since she just stood quietly in one place. The hustle bustle of an adrenaline charged trooper life had almost made her forget about staying still. She smiled and sat down on the damp wild grass just to watch the sunrise.

There was a tap on her shoulder she just brushed away. "Not now, I'm busy." She said rudely even if she wasn't busy at all. The tapping continued much to her frustration. She turned and gave the person her best annoyed look just to recall the expression when her eyes went upward from the muddy boots to the crisp white collared shirt to the person's face. She quickly stood up to salute by instinct.

"Lt. Razak!" She greeted much out of shock. The lieutenant took her saluting hand and forced it down to her side. She just stared at her former officer's smile, obviously slightly amused at her reaction. She looked at him absolutely bewildered. How could she be here with him? She gasped. "Sir! Am I dead?" She asked.

Lt. Razak's smile widened and to those who knew him, that would be equivalent to laughing. "You were always a bit slow, Flores." He answered motioning for her to follow him. They started to hike up slope.

Dizzy Flores eyed her the dead officer suspiciously. "So I am dead?" She asked while following wherever he was taking her. They reached the top of the mountain. She looked around-- definitely familiar territory.

"Not yet but we're here." He said. "Strawberry outpost." He pointed at the little shack just in the distance. Dizzy Flores turned around to the scenery she just left. No wonder this place looked familiar. This was where they said their formal goodbye's to the old lieutenant. They poured his ashes on that lake. But even back then, they were still fighting bugs. "Dizzy, you have to go." Razak said.

She turned around and nodded walking behind the man. "The bugs. Right. They need killing." She said sadly as the outpost grew bigger. "You know, if I could go back, you could too." She suggested when they stopped right in front of the door.

Razak gave the a smirk. "No, I'm actually really dead." He said opening the door for her. Beyond the door wasn't an outpost at all. It was their squad room turned into a medical facility. There were two rows of beds against the walls. There they were-- his old squad badly injured. Most of them, like Rico and Zim, were awake but still weren't good enough to go without the IV drip. She saw some, who were, like her, still lying motionless quite dead to the world. She faced her the old man. "Go on." He said. "Don't let Rico worry anymore than he already has."

Dizzy gave the old man a hug, much to his surprise. "Enjoy a bug free after life L.T." She said before letting go.

Razak's smile hasn't wavered. "I don't know. Watching you people could give anybody a heart attack." He answered.

"Then it's a good thing you're already dead sir." She said facing the squad room scene. She took a deep breath, tried to relax and jumped in.  
--

"Welcome back to the land of the living trooper." She heard a familiar voice say far too cheery for her taste while her eyes tried to focus on the fuzzy world. She groaned at the literally painful familiar sensation. Her whole body felt like it was rebelling against her being awake. Suddenly, she wished she had delayed stepping in the outpost a little while longer or at least when her body was all healed. The grinning face hovering above hers started to focus. Eventually, she found herself staring at Rico. "If you'd like to know, we're on the temporary SICON HQ in San Francisco." He said imitating the voice of an annoying sports announcer.

"Do something less annoying and help me sit up." She said surprised at how raspy her voice she sounded. She sat up slowly with her friend's help. Rico placed her pillow upright behind her to act as a back rest while Carl Jenkins helped her from falling back down. She looked at her friends lazily. Her bed, apparently, was right in the middle of her two friend's. "San Francisco huh? I saw the L.t. at that lake" She said while rubbing her eyes. She heard the two laughing. "What?"

Carl wiped the tear that had formed in his eye from laughing. "That's better than Rico." He said. "Bugs made him go all the way back to high school." Dizzy grinned at the picture that had formed in her head. Rico wasn't the best student in Razak's class although, he was the most distracted.

"Well, it's much better than getting picked up from special ops." Rico shot back at Carl. He turned to the girl gently fixing her hair for her with his fingers. She didn't have the energy to swat his hand away-- not that she wanted to, really. "We all saw him. Gossard said the L.t. came to get his hand fixed. Doc said he came in for a check up before going in the emergency ward. Higgins said he was in FedNet... You get the picture." He said leaning back on his bed and taking a video game from under his pillow. Carl did the same.

Dizzy looked around the room smiling. Looks like everybody was fine seeing as the room was filled with noise. T'Phai was the only one really walking around wearing his power suit. He was heading to Higgins who was waving his camera inviting him to watch some edited footage. Poor Brutto, who was sleeping in his bed between Gossard and Doc's, was being used by the two older troopers as a table in their game of cards. Andy was typing on her laptop with a wide grin while Zim was trying to ignore them all by reading a book.

"How long have we been here?" Dizzy asked the two beside her who started playing a linked video game. The boys didn't answer. She watched Carl grin and Rico stick his tongue out trying to concentrate on the game. She rolled her eyes wondering how the boy to her right became a level 4 psychic and how the boy to her left ever became a lieutenant. "Hey!" She said a bit louder. "How long have we been here?" She asked Rico in particular.

Their door slid open suddenly. "Too long." A voice answered. Dizzy faced the door and froze just like every trooper in the room. Gossard shook Brutto to wake up. In less than a second, they were scampering off their bunks to salute their visitor when the door slid open again. "As you were, troopers." Their visitor had ordered. The troopers took a sit on their bunks to watch their two visitors argue.

"General Redwing," Doctor Sharaabi stormed in visibly angry, "these troopers were barely alive a week and half ago. Every medic in HQ will agree with me when I say that these troopers are in no condition to be on the field just yet."

Gossard leaned back to whisper to Brutto and Doc, who was leaning forward. "Cat fight. Higgins should take this." He said.

Brutto rolled his eyes. "Welcome to another episode of SICON girls gone wild."

General Redwing crossed her arms and stared at the doctor. "Dr. Sharaabi, I appreciate your concern but I think they're well enough to decide on their own." She replied pointing at the troopers behind her.

"Oh sure." Dr. Sharaabi answered back dripping with sarcasm. "Because troopers can really say no to orders coming from a SICON general." The doctor mirrored the general's look back at her.

Zim stood up and crossed his arms. "Miriam." He called in a disapproving tone. But both ladies wouldn't budge. The troopers watched the silent match not wanting to interrupt.

Doc grinned at the other two boys. "Maybe she'll suggest to section 8 the general." He said dryly remembering the time they had with Rico in Zegema beach.

After what seemed like hours, Dr. Sharaabi threw her hands up in defeat. "Fine." She said heading towards the door. "But I have nothing to do with this. I'll be back in a few hours to take them off the IV." She said just before she stormed out.

"Redwing one. Medic zero." Dizzy said. General Redwing looked her way. Dizzy felt herself get hot. "Did I say that out loud?" She asked Carl.

Carl leaned to her side. "You think?" He replied.

The general headed to Zim's side. The two exchanged brief hugs, much to the troopers' mild surprise ( and to some, disgust.) "I gather you're not here to visit." Sergeant Zim said taking a seat again. The general shook her head sadly and made her way to the center of the room.

"I wish. I actually need to talk to the squad Sergeant." She looked around the room at each of them before stopping at Zim. "Off the record."

Zim leaned back in surprise. He looked at the general suspiciously. This is the second 'off the record' conversation the general had initiated in a month. Rico had told him about the first after Pluto but they've thought nothing of it because the general was just asking for an opinion. But this seems more than another opinion request. It sounded like a lobby for support. "Higgins, shut that camera off." He ordered to the reporter without taking his eyes off his friend.

Higgins shrugged as he started packing up the camera. Something interesting finally happens after a week of just laying there on his bunk and he can't mention it.

"Off the record, General?" Rico asked leaning in slightly. "Again?"

The general nodded. "It has come to my attention that we're all being lead in circles in this bug war. I reviewed everything that has happened since the Operation Pest Control after your mission to Ceres. The bugs always seem to be one step ahead of us. There are details that don't make sense. Even some of the campaigns..." She shook her head. "Something was always wrong. Something was always off. It's amazing that SICON is still standing." She said. The troopers kept quiet trying to understand what the general was saying. The general herself stood immobile in the center of the room as if trying to decide how to word her next statement.

"General Redwing, are you suggesting that the arachnids have known all of SICON's plans since the start of this war?" T'Phai said carefully. He knew he was treading into dangerous territory. The general nodded and kept her head bowed.

Beside him, Higgins' jaw dropped. He finally understood why he was ordered to keep his camera. If any part of this conversation got out then everybody here would be hell to pay. He took a mental note to erase the film that marked when the general came in the room.

"Stop." Rico interrupted before anybody could react. "If any you don't want to hear anymore, you could leave the room. No hard feelings." Rico said without looking at anyone in particular. The room stayed silent but nobody moved from their beds much to General Redwing's relief.

Brutto shrugged. "We're just planning our next bug attack. Don't be such a drama queen." He said breaking the silence and creating an excuse for all of them. Dizzy and Carl couldn't help but giggle at Rico's shocked reaction. "Besides, we're strapped in." He pointed to the IV drip behind him.

Doc playfully shoved the boy in approval. "Smartest thing you've said ever."

"Please don't tell me we're playing that panel inquisition thing again." Higgins groaned leaning back on his pillow.

Zim eyed the quiet statue of a general with a little bit more than a bad feeling about the whole situation. He knew General Redwing better than probably anybody else alive. She wouldn't be revealing this much to normal troopers if she just wanted help to create a plan. No, she was smart enough to make one herself and go through it with the squad officer. Troopers wouldn't be informed just so everything could be as authentic and contained as possible. This issue has to be big for the General to be acting this bothered. "Miriam," He said surprising the rest with his use of the general's first name, "why don't you tell us what's really on your mind. Are we dealing with an informant like Higgins thinks we are?" He asked.

The general shook his head facing her friend. "No. Not an informant." She paused and took a deep breath. "I think the 'Queen' isn't what we think she is and has infiltrated SICON." She said slowly. The room erupted in violent reactions. The general allowed the troopers to react. She was more concerned with what Zim and Rico thought about her presumption. But while Zim kept quiet on his bunk, Rico was having more trouble trying to deal with the suggestion.

"General Redwing, with all due respect, do you even have proof?" Carl asked loudly amidst the confusion. "I mean, how did the bugs infiltrate SICON without anybody noticing? Everybody gets checked with an X-ray gun for control bugs before they step in any military facility. Hypnotic suggestion only works so far and, as far as we know, brain bugs have never controlled a human being... or a Skinny."

"Everyone quiet!" Rico yelled. Everybody did as they were told. They've never seen Rico so flustered in the whole time they've been Roughnecks. "I'm sure the general knows what she's saying. General Redwing?" He motioned for the general to continue.

General Redwing bit her bottom lip as she felt every trooper's eye on her. She could sense the animosity and confusion she brought in the room. She sighed. She knew she was about to make it worse. "The queen isn't an egg laying machine contrary to what Intel has said before. I believe the queen is an Impostor bug with brain bug capabilities."

"And who is the bug pretending to be?" Gossard asked while massaging his temples. He felt like he was reading one of Andy's science fiction novel. Everything was hard to digest especially for someone who, for most parts, deals with exact measurements. He felt a head ache starting to form.

"Sky Marshal Sanchez." General Redwing answered.

Dizzy frowned. "Sky Marshal Sanchez? Sky Marshal Sanchez is a bug?" She said crossing her arms. She can't believe she woke up just to hear this twisted reasoning from a SICON general who was a friend of her old lieutenant. Not to mention she had just gotten up. She felt the world starting to blur again but this time, it had nothing to do with medication or her injuries.

"Evidence is there." The general started to defend herself. "I was part of the detail that escorted the Starship Trojan out of our system. Sky Marshal Sanchez was aboard. Before it crashed, he was able to give Earth their coordinates in case of a rescue. But there were no survivors. Then, two days later, he was found inside a fighter plane that had crashed in Dakota and then SICON denies him ever being in the Trojan."

"Dakota--That's the place we found that creepy town obsessed with the weather." Carl said in passing.

"That's right. Unfortunately, there's more." The general took a deep breath. "In every operation it seemed like the bugs were waiting for us to move in before out flanking us. OPC was just the start of it-- made themselves known. I started to become suspicious of Intel since the Klendathu campaigns because I felt like we were falling for every decoy and distraction the bugs planned. Jean was helping me compile information with his own network but I stopped the project after... he left. There were questions like why do we always end up looking for the bugs in the wrong place? Why was there a giant purple Rippler laying eggs that's the Queen's job? Every bug we know so far has a specialized purpose, why would there be a double in population expansion duty? Why would the Queen be so much smaller than that Rippler when the Rippler was only laying eggs for one bug specie and the Queen lays for all? And then Ceres came. If the bugs have been there for that long then they had time to plan everything even before SICON was founded. The operation itself was a disaster and the only two people who knew the complete plan were Lt. Walker and the Sky Marshal. And although I know how you feel about Lt. Walker, we all know which of the two ordered your rescue."

The silence was deafening for a moment as the facts filtered in. Intel had always been incomplete at best and was the only department under the direct control of the Sky Marshal. Information could be easily falsified without much question. If the general was correct, then they've been fighting a losing war from the start. Troopers were being manipulated to their death by orders stemming from the Sky Marshal and passed through the chain of command. The troopers had never had the upper hand. But if the general was wrong, then the consequences would be dire.

Higgins spotted a girl at the corner of the room sitting on her bunk with a small smile on her face contrasting everybody's shocked expression. "Andy, you knew about this didn't you?" He pointed at the younger trooper.

The girl turned to look at him. "About the Sky Marshal Bug? Of course not. Don't be stupid. I don't make up conspiracy theories." She replied her smile fading at the reporter's accusation. "No offense general. " She quickly added. "I knew about the Queen theory not being unanimously accepted within Intel. It says so in the briefing's minutes. But the Sky Marshal told everyone about the queen theory a bit prematurely and Intel couldn't do anything about it because it'll look bad that the SICON head had to be corrected and statements had to be retracted and stuff. Besides, the Sky Marshal had deployed troopers to nab the ..."

"We were there. Don't remind me." Dizzy said interrupting the other girl's ramblings and glancing at the psychic.

"You don't need to tell that story." Carl said sheepishly remembering his attitude that particular day.

Andy looked at him."Riiiight. I forgot about that." She said slightly slower before continuing. "Then there's the Trojan and the cover up they made after the plane crash-- which, by the way, they weren't smart about. I mean, why would they leave that creepy SOS video lying around when they're suppose to burn the evidence away. Evs, that's SICON's problem if anybody else finds out. I'm not the one who's going to be in trouble because they didn't know how to hide things. The weird thing is the Sky Marshal actually looks younger now than he did then. He must be getting better food." She shook her head and sighed. "So that's where civilian taxes go. We get barely recognizable grub and he gets the fountain of life. Stupid food chain." She finished her rant. She took her pillow from behind to hug it before she noticed that the silent room including the general was staring at her. "What?" She asked. This time, she was the one confused.

"Anderson, where do you get this stuff?" Brutto asked incredulously.

"Especially when part of what you just said is classified information." General Redwing eyed the girl suspiciously.

"We're in San Francisco. Bay area. Silicon Valley. Most of the world's information technology is based here. Including SICON's. Why do you think I begged Dr. Sharaabi for my laptop when I woke up? You can find anything you want if you really tried. If you really want erase something massive, the first thing you do is either create a killer virus or destroy the city-- whichever is easier." She answered.

General Redwing smirked. "The Sky Marshal was so insistent for fleet to bomb the city even after Razak and Walker suggested their plan. The bugs could've used a psychic block like Beijing so nobody knew they were coming until the tunnels were spotted. Intel wouldn't have known they were coming. The bombing would be legitimate. It could be another reason why he chose San Francisco for temporary HQ even when there are other more fortified bases-- he'd have complete control of the archives."

"General, isn't that slope you're on a bit slippery?" Doc warned the theorizing officer.

Rico met Zim's eye and shrugged. He couldn't force the troopers to comply with something that's sounds like speculation. There's only one way to settle this. "Vote." He sighed and raised his hand. "Who's with figuring out if the Sky Marshal is a bug?"

"Nothing has worked so far." Doc said when he raised his hand very hesitantly.

"I just want to see if it's true." Gossard shrugged when he raised his.

"Not inconceivable. Tophet was unknowingly controlled by bugs." T'Phai nodded. After this reminder of what the control bugs did to his planet, the remaining troopers raised their hands making the decision unanimous.

"So." Max Brutto met the General's gaze. "We don't need to read the archives do we?" He grimaced.


	7. Chapter 6B

STC 6B: The Citizen

T'Phai was stationary sitting on his bunk watching the rest of the squad sleep when he couldn't. Half the time, he was staring at the still folded blanket at the foot of his bunk trying to concentrate on a question-- why they ever bothered giving Tophettis a blanket when they were in full power suit all the time. It wasn't much of a question but it served its purpose to distract the colonel on what's really on his mind. Could Earth's military government leader really be an arachnid? His hand went over the folds of the blanket but didn't feel anything through the power suit. If it is true and the real Sky Marshal had died, then control bugs were out of the question. How was the bug keeping its form? He unfolded the blanket slowly and lifted it up. It was slightly shy of covering him fully. They should've given him a bigger blanket. Tophettis were after all, taller than most humans. Impostor bugs with brain capabilities was what General Redwing had said, but if so, then why haven't the pre- cogs caught a glimpse of pretense? He folded the blanket back careful to use its original folds. He really couldn't understand why they gave Tophettis human blankets.

Suddenly, from across the dark space, he saw a figure sit up as if he was being pulled by a string. T'Phai counted which bunk it was from the right corner to check on who it was. "Private Jenkins?" He called out tentatively to who he thought was sitting down. T'Phai turned on his bunk's personal light. His eyes adjusted quickly to the sudden brightness. He was right. The squad's pre-cog was the one who just woke up. But Carl had his eyes open staring into space not even blinking. T'Phai quietly walked over stopping in front of the trooper. He bent down slightly to examine him. He waved one hand close to Carl's face but he didn't move a muscle. T'Phai nodded remembering that he had read about this human condition.It was like sleepwalking. The human shouldn't be moved because he was still asleep. He was about to get back to his bunk when he saw the pre-cog blink. The colonel watched as the trooper's eyes became more focused, his expression more serious.

Carl Jenkins looked at T'Phai with fear in his eyes. "Colonel, they're coming." He said almost calmly. Then as if he just realized what he just said, T'Phai watched the psychic shake the people around him to wake up. "They're coming! They're coming! Wake up." He shouted. He only stopped waking Dizzy Flores when she sat up rubbing her eyes. Carl then started with the other girl.

"Carl, what's happening?" Dizzy asked slightly annoyed that she was unceremoniously awakened.

T'Phai placed both his hands on Carl's arms to stop the psychic from shaking Andy anymore-- she was awake and looking sleepily at the psychic. "Earthquake simulations aren't cool in San Francisco." She yawned before slumping back down on her bunk. "Came back from sim room a few hours ago C.J. Give me five minutes."

"They're coming! T'Phai, let go of me. We have to get everyone up." He yelled angrily at the Skinny as he struggled from the Skinny's grip. "Johnny, wake up!" The troopers started to rouse with the noise.

The colonel took hold of the shouting boy again. "Private Jenkins," he said sternly, "who's coming?"

"The bugs! Who else?" He answered exasperatedly.

Higgins was stretching his arms while he yawned. "Did you say Bugs?" He asked watching the odd scene unfold-- a Skinny was trying to get a hold panicked human psychic while people were just starting toss in their bunks hoping they'd keep quiet.

Carl rolled his eyes and tried to get way from T'Phai again. "Yes. The types that want to kill us. Now let me go colonel!" T'Phai let the boy go afraid he was harming him by holding him down too forcefully. He crossed his arms instead keeping watch at the manic psychic.

"You sure you didn't just have a nightmare Carl?" Rico asked while fluffing his pillow. Before the psychic could answer, the red light inside the room started to spin. The sirens followed a second later bringing those who were half awake to fully awake. The computerized voice filled the air as it instructed those who are stationed at the base to arm their battle stations. Carl gave mocking look. "Okay, I stand corrected." Rico said getting out of bed.

--

The San Francisco base had literally become a war zone. The automatic motion senors at the perimeter were working at full force as the bug horde advanced. There were troopers on the perimeter unable to do anything else but hopefully hold their lines.CHASes were deployed at every major point. But after awhile, every piece of land became a major point and the CHAS were ordered to help secure parts of the base that were starting to get over run. The bugs burrowed underneath by passing the ground defenses of wires, weapons and mines just to pop up in the middle of the base. Troopers scampered off various bulging areas ready to face whatever came out. Tanker bugs were almost always first as they could survive most of the salvo the troopers launched countering with its own offensive. The bugs behind them, blisters, warriors etc were able to scamper out of the tunnels protected by the fiery Tankers. Fliers swarmed the skies above, some purposefully disabling the automatic systems set in place weakening the perimeter defenses for their crawling relatives. The Fliers had also taken out the base's hangars forcing a delay in air support because they had to come from other SICON bases.

Rico slid under a low flying hopper shooting as he landed on inside the fox hole. They had just gotten through to the quad when they were forced to take cover. By then, the quad was already riddled with holes on the ground from previous assaults coming from both sides. He turned, his eyes widening upon seeing a small group of blasters ready to let loose.

"Cover!" He shouted. The Roughnecks ducked before fire blasted overhead. Rico caught a glimpse of his psychic friend. "You're not allowed to wake me up ever again." He said.

Carl gave him a dry smile. "Next time I'll let the bed bugs bite." He replied. The fire above them cleared. Carl quickly chucked a hand grenade underneath the blasters. The troopers took cover again.

Higgins looked around. He saw a familiar lump forming only a few feet from them. He stowed his camera quickly and grabbed Zim's attention. "Sarge, we need to get out of here." He pointed at the growing lump panicked.

Zim saw the top soil starting to break apart. "Abandon fox hole troopers." The troopers filed out quickly only to be met by a the warrior bugs that had started to filter in from the perimeter defenses.

"This is starting to get ridiculous." Doc said reaching for another clip from his pack to face the warrior bugs heading their way.

Dizzy Flores was already shooting down the warrior bugs with a small smile on her face. "You only noticed that now?" She replied to the larger man beside her.

Zim blocked off their banter because his immediate concern just arrived. He was shooting the bug along with Brutto and Gossard but to no avail which was to be expected with the tanker's exoskeleton. "Anderson! Tanker." He called out to the trooper that was shooting fliers off the sky. She automatically turned to face the tanker, went down to one knee and aimed. The tanker screeched furiously letting out a blast of fire. Andy shot a grenade from her morita to, what she hoped, was the big bug's mouth before rolling away from the line of fire.

She stared at the bug slightly confused and checked the setting of her morita. The bug was still moving forward but she was sure she launched a grenade. If she missed, there should've at least been an explosion nearby. She looked at the tanker while shooting another grenade towards a group of blisters. "Blow up already!" She yelled in frustration. The tanker stopped moving. She heard a muffled explosion and smirked when she saw the tanker fell with smoke coming out of its mouth and exoskeleton. The girl nodded.

"See? I told you she was freak." Brutto said to Gossard who just rolled his eyes at the boy.

"Killer Indigestion." Dizzy cheered as she exchanged hi fives with the other girl who headed back to killing warriors.

Higgins' jaw dropped. "Oh no. Now there's two of them." He said sarcastically.

T'Phai was looking at the sky shooting down the fliers that were passing by. He looked at the crawling bugs that were flanking them curiously. "Lt. Rico, they all seem to be heading to one direction." He said to the man that had just dodged a firefry flame.

Rico looked overhead at what the colonel was pointing at. The skinny was right. The bugs seem to be heading towards the only part of the facility that wasn't surrounded by open land or water because it was embedded on the foot of the Berkeley Hills. "Doc," he called out, "you've been here before. What's over there?" He asked.

The medic glanced at the direction Rico was looking at before being shoved aside by Carl. "Officer's quarters I think."

"Which officers are there?" T'Phai asked.

Doc shrugged. "The higher ups usually. Why?" He answered.

Zim and Rico looked at each other. Zim nodded changing his morita settings. "You're kidding." Rico said dryly. "Tell me your kidding." Zim just shrugged.

"Hey guys, we could use your help here?" Carl said motioning towards the new onslaught of crawlers that have just gone above ground through a now dead tanker worm headed their way. A spider jumped towards him and Carl hit the ground instinctively. Suddenly the spider was hit in mid air by a still accelerating muddy black pickup truck. He stood up watching the pick up turn sharply before ramming into a warrior in front of T'Phai.

Gossard's face broke into a big smile when he saw the familiar face behind the wheel. "Sarge, I didn't know you joined the demolition derby." He said climbing in the back of the pick up continuing th shoot the new wave.

"Why should I when you didn't invite me to your party?" Sergeant Brutto tilted his head to one side cockily.

Higgins climbed on board. "You can crash our party anytime." He said with a grateful tone.

"Dad?!" Max Brutto opened the passenger's side door and hopped in followed by Rico.

Everybody else filed in behind. The engines revved again and the pick up accelerated out of the quad. The troopers behind kept firing at the arachnids until it was safe enough to put up a firewall. Sergeant Brutto glanced at the long blue wall stretching laterally on the quad behind them and sighed knowing that the relief he feels is temporary as he saw plasma bug fire rain down from the sky randomly.

Rico faced his old sergeant and signaled him to turn around. "Um, Sarge, we're kinda hoping to go to the officer's quarters?"

"Kinda hoping?" Sergeant Brutto rolled his eyes while he mimicked Rico's tentative sounding request. He pressed hard on the brake turning the wheel and bringing the vehicle to a skidding 180 degree turn. The pickup paused for less than a second before accelerating again.

There was a loud pounding sound on top of them "You don't impress me much Sarge." They heard Dizzy yell sarcastically. The pickup lurched right as the sergeant tried to avoid hitting a dead bug. "Oh my god, we're going to die." They heard Higgins terrified voice say.

Max Brutto pounded on the top of the cabin. "Stop your whining." He shouted back to the troopers as machine fire once again echoed through the pickup. He glanced at Rico's side mirror and saw that a swarm of fliers were following them. "I swear! They won't be following us if we throw Goss over." He said.

There was another pound on top of him. "I heard that." Gossard's voice said.

A hand hit the back of Rico's head. Rico massaged his probable new injury. "What the-- Sarge! What was that for?" He exclaimed as the man made the vehicle lurch left.

"I told you to watch the squad's back, Lieutenant." He said emphasizing Rico's new position. "Not lead them to suicide." The vehicle went in between buildings and a much smaller quad was in view. The crawlers haven't infiltrated the quad yet but the sky was swarmed. In front of them was a building built within a a mountain. Parts of the dimly lighted building sparkled with machine fire bursts. Various troopers were starting to emerge from the building-- only they were crawling before standing upright.

The fliers started screaming as the pickup came out of the shadows. "Dad, the bugs." Max Brutto pointed at the windshield as the bugs started diving for them.

The Sergeant wasn't done berating the lieutenant and continued to eye Rico "You're lucky the bugs came. I was ready to kill you after I visit Maxi."

"Bugs!" The younger Brutto shouted out. Sergeant Brutto turned his attention to the scene in front of him. His eyes widened as the fliers were diving too near. He jerked the wheel to the left too suddenly. The pick up became unbalanced and rolled over.

--

Sergeant Brutto opened his eyes. The sound of weapons fire filled the air. It sounded all too familiar. He tried to stand from his sitting position before he remembered that he couldn't use his legs anymore. He saw a trooper stow her morita and helped him to his levi-chair.

"Can I just say," she said as she steadied the chair, "you guys look like clones."

Higgins smirked. "That's assuming they're not." He said.

The sergeant grinned. "Maxi gets his good looks from me." He answered the girl while he eyed Higgins and looked around. It looks like he was the last one to get up. The Roughnecks were holding their own in part of the two buildings they had passed between that had turned into ruins. The ceiling had crumbled in some places blocking any way of finding safety through the building they were in and allowing the fliers to get near. The windows were large-- almost floor to ceiling in length. Each of the troopers were hiding in between or under the window frame every time they fired. But there were things he didn't quite fathom. He could understand how the fliers and crawlers kept going at them. But the troopers in front of the officer's building were shooting at them too.

"Private Anderson never said anything about young Brutto looking good." A calm voice said behind him. He saw Gossard, Rico and Carl chuckle at T'Phai's comment when he turned around.

" Oh that's got to hurt." Doc shook his head grinning as he ran pass the sergeant to help Dizzy and Brutto with their fliers.

Dizzy looked at Brutto grinning as she launched missiles upwards to fliers. "Maxi?" She teased.

"Shut up Isabelle." Brutto fired back much to Doc's amusement when the girl was left with a wry smile.

The older Brutto saw Gossard's face light up like a switch was just turned on. He knew that look. He watched as mechanic headed towards Rico and Zim leaving a gap in between T'Phai and the girl that helped him out. "Hey Gossard! You just broke line." He called out but it was too late. He could hear the fast technical talk coming out of his mouth.

"If the Sarge..." He looked at Zim and corrected himself. "The other sarge, still has gas on his tank and we hit it right, we blow it up with plasma. The gas should mushroom cloud and get the flies. If not, the shrapnel would do it. We also get a nice big firewall until all the gas has evaporated." He said a little excited about the plan.

Zim nodded and Rico smiled. "Bring on the fireworks." He said while shooting a salvo at the troopers in the other building. Three troopers went down just to come back up again a few seconds later.

"T'Phai, Flores, Anderson, on Gossard's mark!" Zim shouted.

Sergeant Brutto looked around in confusion as three troopers changed their morita settings to plasma. The three flipped their visors down but one of them flipped it back up after a second. He saw Gossard look up to the sky gauging the flying population. "Hit the deck!" The mechanic yelled. The three troopers launched their plasma fire and ducked. The sergeant's jaw dropped as he did lowered his upper body. The pick up truck exploded just like Gossard predicted it would. The bugs in their vicinity dropped dead. When they raised their head to see the damage, they were relieved to see a massive firewall in place stretching across the quad and preventing even the fliers from coming through.

"Someone tell me what's going on?" Sergeant Brutto demanded. The troopers spun around to face the angry trooper sitting on the levi-chair with his arms crossed.

Dizzy Flores eyed the old sergeant curiously. "Well sarge," she said slightly tentative why she's explaining their actions, "there are bugs. We want them dead. So-- boom!" She clapped both hands together to emphasize the explosion. "Dead bugs."

Doc nudged the girl beside him playfully. "Nice. I see we're back in middle school, Diz."

"What's the matter sarge? Had enough time to forget trooper life?" Gossard teased.

"Hey! You can't talk like that." Max Brutto jabbed a finger at Gossard's chest. Gossard raised both his hands still grinning at his little come back.

Brutto instinctively growled in frustration knowing he won't get a straight answer from anybody that used to be under him-- he never did. "Now that you idiots, those troopers." He swiveled his chair to face Zim. "Please. Make. Sense." He said gritting his teeth.

Zim let his morita lean on his shoulder a little too smugly for the sergeant's liking although nobody else had reacted. "Modified versions of Impostor bugs, Sergeant. Half bug half human DNA. Bugs can take human form." He answered with his usual no nonsense tone. "There's a theory that SICON has been infiltrated up to the top level." He continued cautiously not revealing anymore details knowing that the sergeant has already been honorably discharged from duty.

"Then what are you still doing here?" Lt. Rockford said from behind them. Zulu squad entered through the large window frames behind Sgt. Brutto. They laid their 2 injured against the wall where the ceiling hadn't fallen before facing Alpha with a grin on their faces.

Doc elbowed Gossard. "You should maybe give his mechanical eye a check." He mumbled so that only mechanic could hear.

"Bugs Lieutenant. Haven't had time to clear an exit." Rico said eying the medic. Doc winced realizing that he had heard the comment even if Lt. Rockford was acting like he hadn't.

Lt. Rockford looked at the pile of rubble he was talking about. He nodded at Sgt. Zim. "Sgt. Lavigne!" He called out. Sean Lavigne ran up to the lieutenant and saluted. "Clean it up." He ordered without so much as giving the trooper a passing glance.

"Sir yes sir!" The sergeant answered. He took his triple grenade launcher and a few steps back. The trooper's eyes grew wide as they scrambled for cover. The sergeant grinned as he pulled the trigger and quickly hit the deck. There was a large blast. Dust was thrown up to the air but as it cleared, the debris that had been blocking their potential exit had been loosened enough that there was a way through. As the dust settled, the troopers from both squad gathered in the middle of the room.

Lt. Rockford faced Lt. Rico. "Take your squad in. We'll distract those bugs and come in through the front door when it's all clear." Zulu's officer said motioning to the newly created hole in what used to be a wall. Rico looked at the lieutenant slightly confused. "We can't let the bugs know you're not here." Lt. Rockford explained before moving to a window. "Zulu!" he yelled out.

"We're going to pretend to be you. I call dibs on Higgins! Always wanted to be reporter." Bryan said gleefully as he passed by Max Brutto.

John grinned. "I'd rather pretend to be Lady Flores. Now who has red hair dye?" He winked at Dizzy the stopped in his tracks and frowned glancing at Lt. Rockford. "Hold on. But then I'd have to get it on with the"

Lee hit his friend before he could finish the sentence. "Don't. Even. Dare." He said giving a mortified Dizzy an apologetic look. He picked a window and propped his morita. The blue wall in front of them had started to lighten. Some spots were already starting to clear. "Firewall's about to go." He warned the other squad.

"Alright Roughnecks, let's go." Rico yelled. He went as few steps forward before he stopped and turned. Andy, Dizzy, T'Phai and the two Brutto's hadn't moved from their positions.

Sergeant Brutto levitated towards Gossard and Doc. "Give me whatever you don't need in close quarters. Now." He ordered before meeting Rico's confused glance. "It's not a marauder you know." He tapped on the levi chair.

The two troopers unloaded some of their ammunitions on the man's lap at the sight of a familiar threatening scowl. "A Brutto with that much ammo." Doc shook his head. "What have we done? We've doomed us all."

Max Brutto rolled his eyes at the medic. "I'm with him." He said following his father past Rico.

"What?!" Rico exclaimed. " T'Phai? Andy? Diz?" He turned to face the two girls and the skinny who were already holding up their moritas to their chosen windows.

T'Phai smiled. "Zulu is outnumbered Lt. Rico." He said calmly. "We will follow when able."

"Have you seen them aim?" Andy pointed at the last standing Zulu troopers, Sgt. Lavigne, Lee and the twins. "They don't." The Zulu boys booed at her comment. She stuck her tongue out at them. "Don't even try to deny it. You know I'm right." She taunted.

Dizzy felt Rico and Carl's eyes on her. She shrugged. "T'Phai's right." She said. "Besides, there are more bugs out here to kill." She added with a big grin on her face.

Rico gave up and threw up his hands in defeat knowing that they've made up their minds. It would be useless to try to convince them otherwise. They didn't have the time to argue either. "Fine." He said. "But you have to promise to be here when I get back."

"You have to promise to come back." Dizzy shot back.

Sgt. Brutto sighed listening to their conversation. "Just go get us some wine for that cheese Rico." He shouted aloud earning a few chuckles from those around. He heard foot falls behind him-- a tell tale sound that Rico's group had left-- just in time. A second later, the firewall completely disintegrated. The bugs were coming again screeching as they attacked. A familiar surge went up his spine changing his previous annoyed expression to one with a more sinister smile. He raised a missile launcher taking aim at a swarm to his left. The smile grew wider on Lt. Rockford's command.

"Troopers, engage!" Weapon's fire filled the air once more.

--

General Redwing rolled on the ground reaching for a fallen morita before hiding behind a post. She shook her head. It was hard to tell which one was which anymore when she looked down the hall. Troopers came in to evacuate the generals and the sky marshal apparently by Lt. Walker's orders. But somewhere inside the building, a large group of troopers started shooting at them. The sky marshal had yelled and screamed about insubordination and mutiny which General Redwing thought was ridiculous. One sure shot to the stray troopers had confirmed her suspicion. The trooper changed into bug form charging towards them until it was shot down. They were bugs.

The generals quickly grabbed whatever weapon they could from fallen troopers and bugs pretending to be troopers alike. They were however, being pushed back. Their 'escorts' numbers started to dwindle as more trooper bugs seem to replace every one they shot down. That was putting it mildly. General Redwing took a headcount of how many were engaged in combat with the bugs including the SICON officers. She sighed when she realized there were only twelve left-- four troopers, the seven generals, and the sky marshal. She saw a trooper in front of her collapse and immobile. Correction, her number was now eleven-- three troopers, seven generals and the sky marshal. She was only thankful that the window's reinforced glass hasn't been compromised. The fliers haven't been able to come in. She muttered a curse under her breath as she watched the Sky Marshal retreat to a position behind her. She couldn't keep tabs on him enough when he was in her line of sight because of the bugs. But now, it'll be virtually impossible to check on him.

"Behind you General Takamiya!" A trooper shouted as he took aim at the now bug form trooper that had appeared from the corner. The trooper's shot was good which made the Asian general sigh in relief. But another problem had just presented itself. The stairwell they were hoping to escape from was now, they could only guess with the bug surprise, infested as well. The eleven troopers suddenly found themselves trapped within their own building. Almost automatically, the eleven were split into two groups engaging the enemy in front and behind them.

There was an explosion in the stairwell throwing dead bugs from the stairs down. General Redwing's smiled when she heard the voices echoing through the weapon's fire. "Um, Sgt. Zim, maybe I should take the triple launcher away from you." One sarcastic voice said. "Someone's excited." Commented another trooper. "That's putting it lightly!" exclaimed another trooper. "I said one grenade was enough to create structural damage. One. Not three. One." Said the same voice. "I wonder why he was rushing." Said a much deeper amused voice. "Guys, the bugs?!" A panicked voice warned. "Carl?" Asked the first voice. "One flight down." Answered the second voice almost automatically.

In a few moments, the troopers they were heard arguing came into view as they forced their way down. General Redwing sighed in relief as the troopers rushed to reinforce their line. "Impeccable timing." She said when Rico passed by to settle in the post in front of her.

She saw the Lieutenant she had promoted smirk. "Sgt. Zim got trigger happy." He answered shooting a bug of his own.

"That's actually scary." General Redwing smiled as she felt the energy of her people around her lift at the arrival of the new troopers.

Carl Jenkins smirked as he made his way to a post across her. "That's the understatement of the year."

There was a large explosion behind them. All gun fire ceased for a moment only to see Sgt. Zim coming back from where the stairwell used to be. The bugs screamed and started their offensive again but at least there wasn't any crazy bugs from behind. "Maybe he's overheated again?" Higgins looked at Gossard as he traded his camera for a morita.

Gossard chuckled. "We should have Doc look at him this time." He flipped his visor down. His eyes widened when he saw the amount of Impostors there were in front of them.

"Don't need to. I recommend a section 8. No questions asked." Doc said automatically as he rolled to the other side of the hall to get a better shot. Out of the corner of Doc's eyes he could swear that the Sky Marshal was grinning when another trooper from the original escort group succumb to the trooper bug's bullets.

Zim watched the trooper fall silently behind the Sky Marshal then eyed Sky Marshal Sanchez with suspicion. He had seen troopers fall because of enemy fire before. He was sure this one wasn't hit by the bugs but by someone behind the trooper. He met his friend's eye as she looked back to check where everyone was. He motioned his morita slightly to the direction of the Sky Marshal. He saw her wary expression become more disturbed. They needed a plan to check for sure that the sky marshal wasn't a bug.

Carl Jenkins could tell what was happening without having to look around. The two adults were worried that friendly fire had been the one killing off their own troopers and not the bugs. They all knew that there was only one real way to check but it's too risky for anybody else to do it. "Johnny!" He called out. The lieutenant turned to him confused. Carl tilted his head to one side and shrugged.

Johnny Rico suddenly found himself in a bad situation and it had nothing to do with the fact that the Impostor bugs weren't going away. His eyes turned to saucers when he saw his friend's gesture. "You've got to be kidding." He said for the second time that night.

"You know another way?" Carl Jenkins answered back when he got back to shooting the impostors.

Rico grimaced at the thought of what he was being asked to do. But amidst the bickering of Higgins, Doc and Gossard, the various calls for shot and ammunition from the generals, the sound of weapons fire and the screams of the bugs, he suddenly found himself remembering an old question asked by his old lieutenant and high school teacher. "What is the difference between a citizen and a civilian?" Lt. Razak had asked him that day when he was caught more engrossed with Carmen Ibanez than the lesson, the day Carl Jenkins had to remind him of the question, and the day he gave Dizzy Flores a reason to call him an idiot. His answer had somewhat redeemed him in the eyes of his teacher-- "A citizen knows how to live with the choices he makes or how to die defending them" Rico opened his eyes and took a deep breath. It looks like he might just die defending his. He brandished his hand gun, waited for his hand to stop trembling and aimed in Sky Marshal Sanchez' direction.

Rico pulled the trigger.  
--

Max Brutto thought he was imagining things when the bugs, for one brief second, the impostors at the other end stopped shooting. It didn't matter, they kept shooting anyway and downed every bug they can. "Did they just stop?" He asked everyone there. And as if the bugs heard him, they started going at the troopers again.

"You jinxed it!" Dizzy Flores yelled as she changed her morita settings.

"I didn't do anything!" He shouted back. He saw Lee shake his head with a small smile on his face. "What are you smiling about Zulu?" He asked rudely.

Lee shrugged. "You called it out Alpha. International Rules of Jinxing say that you jinxed it." He answered calmly.

"International Rules of what? That doesn't exist!" Max Brutto answered back.

John traded his morita for his missile launcher. "Actually, mini me-- mini him," He corrected himself pointing at the older Brutto, "it does exist."

Bryan grinned evilly as he hid behind the walls of the building ruins. "There's technically only one golden rule." He replied.

"I am curious to know what this rule is." T'Phai said curiously much to Brutto's dismay.

The twins grinned. "He who calls it, jinxed it." Andy, Lee, and the twins answered in unison. Dizzy Flores couldn't help but smile when he saw Brutto hit his head with the palm of his hand.

Sgt. Lavigne sighed. "Andy, Lee, twins, if he shoots you it's not my problem." He warned but the four continued on their conversation about Jinx rules completely ignoring him. Suddenly, there was a roar overhead as fighter planes passed by their air space. He grinned seeing T'Phai automatically turning on his communications link. Just when he thought there weren't any sane troopers in alpha, the colonel had seemingly redeemed the squad.

"This is Private T'Phai of Alpha Squad to fleet requesting aerial reinforcements over." T'Phai said over the links.

"This is Lt. Ibanez. I've got your position colonel. Sorry it took so long, traffic was a killer." A smile formed on the Skinny's face when he heard a familiar voice over the links. "Lt. Daniels," she continued, "care to join me on this run?" She invited another fleet pilot. T'Phai saw Sgt. Lavigne's face light up at the sound of the other girl's voice.

"You got yourself a wing lady." They heard Lt. Daniels answer.  
--

The six generals froze along with the impostor bugs when the Sky Marshal held his hand to his cheek. The bullet Rico let loose grazed the Sky Marshal slightly. The Sky Marshal's shocked face turned instantly to anger. "Lt. Rico did you just shoot me?" He shouted angrily releasing his hand from his cheek and coming out from the post he was behind. He raised his morita at Rico. "Did you just shoot me?" He asked again. His eyes blazed with anger as he headed slowly at the insubordinate lieutenant.

Higgins was wide eyed staring at the immobilized impostors. He quickly changed from his morita to his camera. He had to get this scene. He focused his lens at the angry Sky Marshal heading towards Rico and gasped. "Um, Sir," He said stopping the sky marshal in his track. "You're... bleeding... green?" He finished his sentence slowly trying to convince himself of what he's seeing. The cut on the sky marshal's face quickly disappeared.

"I heard of blue blood but green?" Doc said deciding to raise his morita to shoot at the frozen impostors.

"She IS alien." Gossard replied raising his own morita and pulling the trigger on the impostors. Zim followed suit. The impostors fell one by one under the fire of three troopers. The Sky Marshal screamed in anger as the 6 generals just stayed at their place frozen and shocked.

General Redwing brought her weapon up and aimed at the Sky Marshal and saw that Rico and Carl Jenkins had done the same. "You are the Queen aren't you?" She asked threateningly. "The real sky marshal died in the Trojan."

The Sky Marshal laughed when he saw the dire situation he was in. With the threat of the impostor bugs gone, Zim, Doc and Gossard had their own weapons aimed for the Sky Marshal. "Pitiful humans so easily distracted. It was almost easy." He said suddenly in a different tone and voice. General Redwing took that as her confession. The Sky marshal closed his eyes and suddenly, in front of them was the man they all honored-- Lt. Razak. He faced the wide eyed Rico. "Gutsy." He said.

Miriam Redwing's hand trembled at the sight of her fallen friend. "Are you going to shoot me Miriam?" Razak asked taking a step towards the general. Redwing tried to keep her hand steady as he turned around and faced Zim who had lowered his own weapon slightly as well. "And you Charlie?" Razak smiled. Before any one of them could strengthen their resolve, the lieutenant returned to its original bug form. It lashed out it's long limbs hitting and throwing those that had threatened her aside. Carl Jenkins opened his eyes just in time to see the Queen walk on the ceiling trying to scamper away. He rushed over to his fallen friend. "Rico!" He called out.

"The Sky Marshal, he.. Lt. Razak!" Rico mumbled as Carl helped him up. He wobbled slightly before he found his footing and winced when he noticed that his left shoulder had been dislocated from the fall and his helmet nowhere to be found. But they didn't have time.

"Listen to me Johnny, that was a bug, not Razak." Carl handed the boy his morita which he received with his right hand. "She's escaping." Carl said. Rico nodded and the two ran after the Queen before any of the others could ready themselves.

When they turned the corner to a darkened hallway, Carl suddenly collapsed holding his head in pain. "Carl!" Rico rushed over to help his friend. Carl Jenkins waved him off weakly with one hand before the pain in his head doubled forcing him to shout in shock. "It's too dangerous to leave you here."

There were foot falls coming from the hallway. The lights were flashing unevenly with the unstable electrical system. Rico pointed his morita at the lone figure running their way but lowered it when he saw who it was. "Johnny!" The lights revealed a bloody Dizzy Flores running towards them. "What happened to Carl?" She asked kneeling down beside the pre- cog.

"I don't know Diz, he just fell over." He answered obviously panicked that his friend was in a lot of pain.

Dizzy stood up away from his view and looked around. There were sounds of weapons fire coming from the darkened hallway. "Rico, give me your gun." She said. Rico gave his handgun without much thought.

The pain in Carl Jenkins' head increased. His body was starting to go numb in shock. He looked at Rico and shook his head. "Diz." He tried to say his eyes widening.

"What?" Rico asked. "Carl, you should just relax. I'm sure Doc would be here" Rico stopped in mid sentence and froze. He felt cold steel touching pressed against the back of his head.

Dizzy Flores' voice changed. "You've been a threat for too long. Too bad, you would've made a great arachnid." She smiled as her finger started to move.

"No!" Carl Jenkins screamed. In a split second, pushed Rico to one side as the trigger was pulled. The Queen hit the space where Rico would've been. Carl's features wrinkled as he mentally knocked the hand gun away from the hands of the arachnid royal. Rico reached out for his morita and aimed it at the Dizzy Flores in front of him but he couldn't find it in himself to pull the trigger.

The Queen grinned. "So weak." She rolled her eyes reaching for the writhing psychic's weapons. She threw away the knife and reached for the handgun and launchers instead. Carl Jenkins quickly opened his eyes concentrating on the Queen before she could get anything. The arachnid was taken aback at the psychic assault, grabbing her head screaming as her Dizzy facade changed into her bug form. Rico pulled the trigger on his morita. Followed immediately followed by the generals and troopers that had just arrived in the scene to see the transformation from human to bug.

The bug slumped. The gun fire stopped. Gossard and Doc quickly went by their friends' side. They placed the two in a sitting position against a wall for Doc looked them over. The generals were at a loss as General Redwing and Zim started explaining what had just happened with Higgins still filming.

"The Queen is dead. Here in SICON's San Francisco base..." Higgins started making his report."I think she liked you." Rico told Carl smiling weakly.

Carl Jenkins smiled and leaned his still throbbing head on the wall behind him. "She did get frisky." He replied.

Gossard grinned. "Ladies man." He said.

"We missed it!" They heard a boy complain. "Unbelievable." Max Brutto exclaimed. Zulu and the rest of Alpha team had just appeared from the darkened corridor. They lowered their weapons as they headed towards the disheveled group. Lt. Rockford saluted the generals when they got near enough, an example followed by the rest of the troopers-- at least those who could salute. The edgy feeling didn't leave the troopers as fast as it had the generals, the lot of them were watching fleet fighter pilots trying to shoot the fliers from the skies.

Dizzy Flores slowly walked over to where her two friends were being checked over by Gossard and Doc. But she caught a glimpse of a ripple where the dead bug lay. Her eyes grew wide as the bug turned into a bleeding Sky Marshal Sanchez kneeling down with a knife in his hands. She traced the direction he was looking at. "Redwing!" She shouted as she ran.

The fallen Queen had let loose a throwing knife she had gotten from Carl only a few moments earlier and aimed for the general's neck. Rico pushed Doc away from fussing over him just to see Dizzy Flores lunging for the General. He saw Carl reach out for the knife. There was one lone gun shot followed by morita fire. Rico froze-- it happened too fast.

The next thing anybody knew, the general was on the floor with Private Flores right above her. Rico rushed to the two helping Dizzy first by instinct. He saw that Zim was already by Redwing's side allowing him to do concentrate on the girl he was pulling up.

"Doc!" Zim called out after he propped Redwing to a sitting position.

"Diz, you ok?" He asked putting both hands on her shoulders gently. He looked her over with concern.

Dizzy Flores broke into a smile very much amused. "I'm fine Rico. Nothing serious." She answered she said massaging her neck with one hand. To her surprise, she found herself in his sudden embrace. It took her a second to relax and return the gesture.

"It's about time." She heard Doc exclaim walking pass them to check on the generals. She caught a glimpse of Carl Jenkins wink as he passed by behind Rico to pick up the fallen knife a few feet away.

Carl picked up the Queen's knife and examined it He wasn't surprised to see a slight dent on one of the enamel handle. The knife fell a far from where it would've been even if Dizzy had tackled the general first before the knife could do the damage. The bullet from the gunshot had redirected the knife somewhere else. He sighed in relief. He knew he couldn't stop the knife with the headache he had. It was just too fast and too sudden. There was only one thing he can do-- try to slow it down. He smiled as he saw Andy who John and Bryan McKenzie was trying to help the shaken girl off the floor with Sgt. Lavigne berating her. "Time continuums don't exist, Andy! Things don't just slow down." Sgt. Lavigne shouted. Lee pried the handgun from her trembling hands joining the Zulu sergeant in his rant while the girl just nodded somberly between the uncharacteristically quiet twins.

The Queen had returned herself into bug form as the moritas stopped shooting. "Circle." Sgt. Brutto ordered. T'Phai, Max Brutto and himself surrounded the queen. After the ditch attempt she made, Sgt. Brutto couldn't help but glanced out of the window to watch the troopers on the quad battle the organized bugs. "She's not gone yet. Wait for it." He ordered still watching the window. After a few moments, the tide turned as the bugs were suddenly acting in disarray and confusion. He exchanged grins with Max Brutto beside him.

"At ease." Sgt. Brutto ordered.

The two troopers stowed their moritas with relief. T'Phai heard a click beside him. He watched as Higgins turned his camera off for the first time without being told or having any danger around. "Is it finished?"He asked.

Higgins looked out at the quad filled with dead bugs and then back to the Queen. "I hope so." he replied

Doc stared at the pre-cog wryly as he slumped down to a sitting position near the medic. " Couldn't stop a speeding knife huh? How would you do bullets and fly?" He smirked.

"Not in a cartoon show, Doc. No super powers." He answered with the same tone closing his eyes.

Gossard took a seat beside the psychic. "It sure sound like a cartoon show." He replied. "It's the only logical explanation why we're still all alive-- get this, Higgins' actually survived.," he pointed at the reporter still standing, "the clones," he waved to the Bruttos' direction who were walking away the queen with T'Phai, "a new alien race," he pointed at T'Phai, "the chameleon Queen" he pointed to the still bug, "and that ending," he pointed to Dizzy and Rico still hugging.

Carl let out a weak laugh. "Someone's bitter." He commented.

"Oh come on." Gossard waved the comment away. "We all knew how that was going to end. She was Rico's girl from the start."


	8. Chapter 7

STC Aftermath 3: Party at the Jenkins'

Brutto opened his eyes and cringed. The sunlight was hitting his face. He was sure that he had closed his curtains before he went to sleep the night before. Or did he? There was a lot of drinks in that bar when he was out with his football buddies. He cringed again, his hand absently tugging on the collar of his shirt until he felt a soft noose. He grinned. It had been a wild night. He particularly remembered having girls involved and this was definitely not his bed-- which would explain the lack of curtains. His grin grew wider as he rolled to his side to see which lucky lady he ended up beside.

His jaw dropped. His eyes widened. He screamed. Then scampered off the bed to plaster himself on the wall furthest to the bed. His wide eyed expression was still staring at the bed as the figure started to move.

Bobby Higgins rubbed his eyes and sat up. The reporter looked around just to spot a shell shocked Brutto on the far corner. "Hey, did you see where my camera went?" He asked groggily. He swung his legs over to the side of the bed to stand and noticed his shoes. They were shiny. They were leather. They were black. They weren't his. Then his eyes spotted his reflection on the mirror. Suddenly, the sleepy haze in his head was knocked out of him. His head turned to face the boy still against the wall. "What did you do to my clothes and why am I in a suit?!" He demanded. Then he paled. "How did I get into..."

The door to the room opened just in time to cut Higgins off. The two boys automatically stared at the person by the door. "Good. You boys are awake." Said the lady that appeared. Higgin's head registered her as Carl's mom. "Do you want some cookies?" She asked. 

--

After several minutes of looking at a city in piles of rubble from their cab window, Doc and Gossard were happy to get out of the city and see a different sight. Much of the suburbs of Buenos Aires have been rebuilt back into the residential areas they once were. Sure, there were splotches of debris here and there and empty lands of fallen houses, but at least it wasn't as grim as the downtown district that was just starting to be cleaned up. The war had been very good at destroying infrastructure especially in city centers that people would think that it would be the first thing to be fixed when everything was over. But two weeks into relative peace, and the city centers were still left to rubble. It was only logical that people would be rebuilding their homes first.

"How much for the ride?" Doc asked the driver when the cab stopped in front of a quaint two level house.

The cab driver waved both his hands and shook his head. "It would be a shame to charge the friends of Citizen Jenkins."

"Thanks so much." Doc said. The two troopers got out of the cab. The driver waved goodbye from his window with a wide smile on his face as he zoomed off.

The two faced Carl Jenkin's house. "Citizen Jenkins huh?" Gossard smirked. "They weren't that nice when I went home. Maybe I should move." The pair went up the 4 steps and rang the doorbell. Gossard dusted his crumpled blue button up shirt and beige linen pants and caught sight of his sandals. "Do I look ok?" He asked Doc as he compared what he was wearing to the medic's black shirt t-shirt and slacks.

"A bit vain these days aren't you?" Doc replied with a grin.

Gossard shrugged. "It doesn't hurt." They could hear a little hustle behind the door before it swung open revealing an much older girl version of their friend looking slightly harassed with smudges on her apron. She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ears.

"Hi, I'm Jeff Gossard and he's Doc Lecroix." Gossard grinned introducing himself. "That's funny, Carl never mentioned he had a sister." He said.

Mrs. Jenkins swatted the flattery aside laughing. "Flattery will get you nowhere young man. I think we both know I'm his mother." She replied.

Gossard acted surprised. "No. Surely you jest. You can't be much older than the man in black here." He motioned to the medic.

The medic rolled his eyes as the charade went on. Suddenly, he saw the lady of the house glance to someone behind the door with a devilish smile on her face. Gossard was still laughing pointing out how nice the front lawn looked, totally missing the expression. But once Gossard looked back at her, the lady's countenance returned to the kindly lady that opened the door. Doc looked around instinctively. He was pretty sure there were no bugs for miles and control bugs couldn't control humans that good.

The old lady placed her hands on her hips and took a step back. "Well," she said, "you boys better come in. Carl is just up the stairs, first room to your right." She said as Gossard took a step in. Doc saw her expression change again and cautiously came in after his buddy. The house didn't look like anything was wrong. Maybe it was just his imagination. He shook his head thinking he's spent too much time hunting for bugs. "Watch your step boys." Mrs. Jenkins said disappearing into another room.

"Hey Jenkins! You better be decent when we come up there." He heard Gossard yell out taking a step on the first step of the stair case. He sniffed the air before looking at Doc behind him. "Smells good in this house." He said. Suddenly, the troopers' world looked hazy. "Whoah."

Doc heard Gossard react taking a step back down. The smell was familiar to him but he couldn't point it out. He tried to shake the haze off. But he was already lying face up on the floor beside a knocked out Gossard when he saw a blurry Carl come down the stairs. He saw Carl look over him but couldn't make out his expression. "Jenkins, what's happening?" He tried to say. Unfortunately, it came out garbled even to his ears.

"Mom," Doc heard his friend call out in a slightly annoyed tone. "I thought you said you got rid of the halothane after Brutto and Higgins came two hours ago. Halothane was for the bugs! Was. Meaning: past tense. This is totally unnecessary!" (note: halothane kind of sleep gas ) More people gathered around the bodies of the two troopers. Carl sounded like he sighed. "You guys take care of them. I'm going to search the house for more traps. I'm not even sure why SICON gave you people this stuff." He said to the fuzzy figures.

Laughter coming from kitchen was the last sound Doc heard before he fell unconscious.

--

Andy looked at herself in the full length mirror. She couldn't believe it. Two weeks was all it took. Just two weeks into their leave, she had received a far too excited call from Johnny Rico about a party in Buenos Aires while in the middle of her usual Statics bar shift. She didn't know what was louder, the music, the people she was serving or the phone call. Either way, she had to leave the bar floor and hide in the backroom to take the call just to hear yelling in the other line. Only moments from returning to the floor, she had to be called back off the floor to take a slew of calls from the other troopers absolute excited about the reunion like they haven't seen each other in years instead of just two weeks, not to mention they'd be seeing each other in another two weeks. It made a little sense at least. The troopers were used to seeing each other every single day. So here she was in Rico, Flores, and Jenkin's city for a weekend made to wear a pale blue tube summer dress with a white lace ribbon tied on her waist, the ends of which are long enough to reach the back of her knees, and strappy heels. She cringed at her reflection remembering the experience of coming to Carl Jenkin's house an hour early like he instructed her to, just to be pulled in by a bunch of older ladies giving her the dress to wear before making her long straight hair straighter and suffocating her with hair spray, perfume and powder. She didn't have enough time to react and run away. This was, after all, their city. She was outflanked wherever she could've went to escape-- even her hotel, which she booked at Rico's suggestion. Make that Citizen Rico as the locals called him. It wasn't like she could challenge them to hand to hand or mace them. They weren't her bar thugs or party crashers-- they could've been her aunts.

Suddenly, she felt like she was five again, sans the ribbon that her mother used to put on her hair of course, but five nevertheless. Five, helpless and oddly, abused."Carmen had picked out the dress and the shoes. Doesn't it feel nice dear?" A voice said behind her pulling her out of her reverie.

She turned to face Carl's mother with the best smile she could muster. "Yeah.., I mean Yes, Mrs. Jenkins." She corrected herself. It didn't hurt to be polite even after what she went through. "It certainly is different." She replied.

Carl's mom nodded. "Yes, I could imagine how used you and Isabelle are to your military uniform. But it didn't take a lot for Carmen and I to convince Isabelle to wear a dress tonight and it would be odd for her to be the only one in her Sunday's best." Andy paused for a second before she understood who Mrs. Jenkins was talking about. Isabelle was Dizzy and Carmen was fleet fly girl Ibanez.

So this guilt trip reason was fly girl Ibanez's fault. Good. Now, she knew who to go after.

She gave Mrs. Jenkins a smile again. "Well, the military has that effect on you. Camo and all." She said making the lady giggle. She led the girl out of the room and down the stairs. Andy eyed the small gathering of people she didn't know in suits, ties and dresses, her hand still on the stair's banister as she was still getting used to the shoes.

"I'll go ahead dear. Enjoy yourself." Mrs. Jenkins said before disappearing into the crowd. Andy sighed trying to find anyone from the squad and smiled when she heard a loud familiar argument coming from one of the tables overpowering the sound of the piano behind it. True enough, she spotted Max Brutto talking and pointing at Higgins while Gossard and Doc laughed. To her relief, they were all in suits. But instead of rushing to them, she looked at her shoes dryly. Going there would mean having to let go of the railing. "I wish there were bugs." She mumbled to herself as her fingers slowly loosened on the banister.

Now there was only one question that remained in her mind. Why did she think this was going to be a beer fest?

Brutto smirked when she finally got to the table. "Looks like we're not the only ones who were ambushed." He said trying to adjust his royal blue necktie so it wasn't as tight as it was. "No wonder Jenkins is a freak."

--

Dizzy Flores felt like her namesake. After a few hours of mingling with her old high school crowd, she felt dizzy. Half of them weren't what she remembered them to be. Her old team mates were suddenly more well mannered than they were in school. But it wasn't the boys that surprised her, it was the girls. They were a lot less tempermental than she could ever imagine. She was guessing that maybe marriage changed them so that they didn't mind their husbands, her team mates, talking to her anymore. The boys were taken, not to mention, tamed or at least in front of their wives. Or maybe it was the fact that the city was rebuilding and the war had scared most of them half to death that priorities were set straight. Whatever the reason may be, they were so normal it was abnormal. She shuddered at the thought of Rico and her ever being this boring if they ever end up as husband and wife.

Between a conversation with the boys about trooper life and her own questions about their lives, she felt a hand intertwine with hers pulling her away gently. She turned to see a grinning Johnny Rico giving his team mates a wink.

"Surrounded by boys again? This is enough to get me jealous." He said earning laughter from the group. "Dessert's ready by the way." He informed them. They slowly took their leave patting Rico on his back with several jests of "It's about time Rico" with Rico not really sure if they were talking about him and Diz or the food coming. Rico looked the girl over one more time that night. He couldn't get over seeing Dizzy Flores in a snug lavender mini dress that brought out the color of her eyes. He knew he had Carmen Ibanez and Carl Jenkins to thank even for helping him set the whole party up-- right down to the troopers being dressed for the occasion. He met her gaze and felt a crack on his glass bubble-- there was trouble heading his way. "Looking a little pale there Diz. You alright?" He asked.

Dizzy Flores motioned to her surroundings with formally set dinner tables, different colored paper lanterns, piano, dj and a small space in the middle of the garden to dance. "What's happening? Why are we here?" She asked before pausing to look around again just to find the gaze of the old cheerleaders with Carmen Ibanez in their fold. "Why are they here?" She pointed out icily. "We didn't even get along with them."

Rico gave her his best innocent shrug. "Carl invited them to our little get together." He replied. He slowly lead her to the noisy table where the troopers were busy telling stories about their two weeks away from each other.

Dizzy rolled her eyes. "Yes, because Carl spent his whole night mingling with the high school crowd." She answered sarcastically pointing at the troopers' table where Carl spent his night. In fact, only Rico, Carmen and herself spent dinner with their old alma matter. This was the first time they had any chance to even get near the troopers' table where Higgins, Doc, Gossard, Brutto, Carl and Andy were sitting almost oblivious to the rest of the people in the garden. And she could see why-- there were already three bottles of wine open on the table and most of their glasses were half full or less. Andy flipped the corker from a swiss knife to open a fourth bottle already set in front of her. She saw Carl concentrating on a grape as the grape levitated in mid air just to drop directly into Doc's open mouth.

"Score!" Gossard said raising his fist up and exchanging a high five with the reporter beside him. He brought the hand down in front of Brutto. "Pay up." He said. Brutto groaned while placing a dollar bill on technician's up turned hand.

Doc chewed on the grape. "Didn't I tell you to hire yourself out to parties?" He grinned at the laughing pre- cog before taking a sip out of his wine glass. "By the way, about that halothane..."

Rico met Dizzy's dry smile. "Maybe we should've sat in this table." He said pulling a chair out for his girl.

"You think?" Dizzy replied in the same tone.

Higgins held up his camera to the couple. "And here's the couple of the night." He said. "Wave to the camera!"

Rico stared at the reporter for a second. The paperboy was already incredibly flushed. He leaned towards Carl. "Don't give him any more to drink, Carl." He said.

Carl smirked. "Why not? It's fun. Zim and T'Phai are so missing out." His friend answered. "Hey Andy, Brutto, Higgins, Goss, want some cake?" He called out. Rico and Dizzy eyed their friend warily. They've never seen Carl so unreserved before.

So this is what happens after a few glasses of wine.

The girl shook her head. "Sorry, I can't stand." She apologized.

"The bartender can't hold her drink." Max Brutto teased from the across the table.

Andy gave Brutto a wry smile. "Stilettos can crack open your skull. What do you think they do to people's feet?" She replied.

Gossard stood up and adjusted his tie so he at least looked proper when he faced the crowd. "I'll grab you some cake, Andy." He offered, shaking his head to Brutto. "She's not the one who looks like Rudolph's nose, Brutto."

Brutto returned in kind, pointing at the reporter. "I think you're talking about Higgins." He called out before the two boys ventured towards the dessert table. Doc, Carl and Andy exchanged glances before erupting into laughter.

Rico returned his attention to the girl whose hand he was still holding. He met her irritable gaze and shook his head. The plan wasn't working, it was time to confess. "Look, I planned this whole party with Carl and Carmen because I wanted to make it up to you."

Dizzy's look change from annoyed to confused. "What? Make what up to me?" She asked. The table suddenly grew quiet. She knew that the troopers were watching and waiting for whatever might unfold.

Rico rubbed his temple suddenly feeling uneasy about his confession plan. "Yeah. I didn't get to bring you to prom so..."

"He recreated prom night for you! Awww, Isn't that sweet?" Higgins blurted out cutting Rico off. Rico's eyes narrowed at the reporter while the reporter tried to stop himself from grinning.

Doc took Higgins' wine glass away from his reach. "Scary." He said staring at the still grinning reporter.

"Or stupid." Brutto shook his head.

"Are we still talking about Higgins?" Andy asked.

Rico was still deciding if he should feed Higgins to the the bugs if they were assigned clean up duty when they get back when Dizzy sat on his lap and hugged him. A surprised Rico circled his arms around her. "Johnny Rico, you're such an idiot." He heard her say. The table started applauding. There were some wolf whistles but Rico couldn't care less. She was happy, therefore, he was happy. This was how he wanted the night to end. By the time they separated, they saw two troopers behind them carrying cakes.

Carl looked up to the taller technician. "I think we missed something."

-- The end

Note: Er... all hell broke loose in my head. I figured Carl's mom would be the fun one since Carl seems so er... put together.


End file.
